Birth pangs of a new government
The establishment of Israel's new government was accompanied by severe birth pangs. This is always the case when forming a government, but this time the experience was more prolonged, painful and disturbing.
On paper, this government could be better than the previous one in terms of promoting progress within Israeli society. The haredim are paying the price for their obstinacy regarding yeshiva stipends, their evasion of military service and their failure to join the workforce. They now find themselves outside the government. Likud has been freed of the shackles of Shas and United Torah Judaism and will be able to introduce changes. There is now nothing preventing the reduction of haredi evasion of military or national service.
If the members of the new government abide by their coalition agreements, there is also a chance that core subjects will be incorporated into the curriculum of all Israeli state-funded schools. The haredim will become acquainted with mainstream Hebrew culture and learn mathematics and English while secular Israelis will get to know original Jewish texts.
There are even more reasons to expect change. A law will pass stipulating that future governments will be limited to 18 ministers. The new government is already predicted to have only 22 ministers, compared to the previous government's 30. The government will also raise the electoral threshold to four percent, legislation which will help eliminate small splinter parties.
The big winners of the coalition negotiations were Yesh Atid's Yair Lapid and Habayit Hayehudi's Naftali Bennett. Bennett, who immediately following the Jan. 22 election was considered unacceptable by Likud, became the responsible adult, serving as a mediator between Lapid and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. With Bennett's help, Lapid agreed to serve as finance minister rather than foreign minister and Likud agreed to give the education portfolio to Yesh Atid. These two deals paved the way to the final coalition agreement.
The implications are clear. Without the haredim, incoming Education Minister Shai Piron will be able to incorporate core subjects into the curriculum, something that his predecessor Gideon Sa'ar was precluded from doing due to the composition of the previous coalition. However, Sa'ar bore the flag of academic excellence, while Piron clearly wants to reduce the number matriculation exams taken by students. Piron is considered, perhaps prematurely, as someone who wants to lighten the load for students. Excellence is preferable to ease.
Obtaining the education portfolio for his party was only one of Lapid's significant achievements. There is no doubt that if Netanyahu had opened the coalition negotiations by reaching a deal with Bennett's party first rather than ignoring it, the prime minister would have been able to form his new government more quickly and on much more favorable terms than those he agreed to on Wednesday.
In effect, Netanyahu notched only one achievement. He promised that Likud-Beytenu would have a ministerial majority in the government. He kept this promise, which will make steering the government easier for him.
But Netanyahu will face trouble at home. Sa'ar lost the education portfolio, Reuven Rivlin was forced to give up the Knesset speaker position in favor of Yuli Edelstein, and Silvan Shalom was left with only a minor promotion. Likud-Beytenu is set to experience a political earthquake. The first tremors will already be felt in the coming hours, as Likud-Beytenu distributes its remaining assets among the many MKs who claim they are deserving.
Nevertheless, we must wish the new patchwork government much success!
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