Israeli government verges on collapse!

Right, so the hard right coalition government of Benjamin Netanyahu might be about to collapse, or at the very least Netanyahu’s majority in government, cobbled together with a dodgy deal with the far right, might soon be lost and it’s ironic that the far right, to whom Netanyahu consistently has to placate, and has done so in no small part by keeping this war in Gaza going, might end up actually being responsible for it, which would be a delicious case of irony wouldn’t it?
A coalition of six separate parties was always going to be a delicate balancing act, it was seven of course, one party having already splintered away and returning to the opposition benches, but where some conservative and liberal Israeli parties up until now have been prepared to put up and shut up within Netanyahu’s coalition government in exchange for, of course being in power, the actions of one far right minister from one of these far right parties might have pushed the limits for one of these quieter parties too far and should they finally decide enough is enough too, this time around Netanyahu would lose his majority and at that point anything is possible.
Right, so it’s not often you’re willing a government to collapse per se, but when Benjamin Netanyahu is only able to hold his government together itself by continuing it’s war on Gaza, by scuppering every ceasefire attempt that is made, and when the hands of the world are consistently tied by the US veto at the UN Security Council and whilst that nation amongst others continues to heavily finance and support Israel, collapse from within has seemed like the only way of bringing this war to an end realistically in the eyes of many outside observers. Politicians fail the people of Gaza globally, fail to protect lives as a primary driving factor, what is in it for them being put first, placing them on the side of the genocidalists for self serving reasons, not upholding international law as they are signed up to, as they might have the brass neck to claim they are when they absolutely aren’t Anthony flaming Blinken!
But collapse the Israeli government may be about to do from within, keeping far right maniacs in line as part of government seems to have become more and more difficult as such people become more and more drunk on power and one of the tipsiest definitely has to be Itamar Ben Gvir, leader of Otzma Yehudit, the far right, anti-arab, Jewish supremacist party, a racist endeavour in and of itself hands down in my view, Ben Gvir himself having been convicted for inciting racism in the past, but he and his party were, despite all of this, nowhere near bad enough for Netanyahu to turn down as a potential partner to put himself in power again more’s the pity. In fact Ben Gvir became a lawyer, that is his profession, so he could more adequately represent himself for all the indictments he’d had levelled at him over the years, judges presumably sick of seeing him brought up on charges allegedly being the ones who suggested he try studying law!
Well, this latest debacle is one of those cases best summed up by the word’s he’s gone and done it this time, having a track record of causing dissent and civil unrest as he has both before and since entering government, stoking it even on other occasions, from joining with other Settler’s in the right wing Nahala movement, who want rid of the Palestinians so they can colonise their lands, celebrating plans for settlements in Gaza, praising the destruction of Palestinian property, even being caught on camera seemingly doing it himself.
But of all his acts, the ones that have arguably caused the most offence are his trips up to Temple Mount, which is home to the compound of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Now Temple Mount is a site of religious significance to all three main religions which can trace their roots back to what is referred to as the Holy Land, Christianity, Islam and Judaism, but as far as Temple Mount goes, the status quo is that Muslims can attend for prayer with few restrictions, however non-Muslims can only enter the compound during certain times, through only one of the compounds 11 gates, and are not permitted to pray there. So what do you think Ben-Gvir did just two days ago on the Jewish holy day of fasting that is Tisha B’Av then? The festival of remembrance for the two ancient Jewish temples on Temple Mount that were destroyed? Well, he went up there with a load of other Jewish visitors and in defiance of police instructions and the conventions in place, they went in and began praying and prostrating themselves, because of course they did.
As you can imagine, there has been hell up. Condemnation has come from around the world, even Anthony Blinken and David Lammy have criticised him so you can tell it must be bad. Not bad enough for Keir Starmer to say anything though I’ve noticed.
There was a delightful quote which really did nail the situation well published in the Times of Israel of all places, which read:
‘“Jews going up to the Temple Mount is like throwing a match into an oil well,” the Yated Ne’eman daily’s editorial said. “The Temple Mount may turn into a volcano that covers the entire Middle East with ash.”’
All in all, it’s a big no-no what Ben-Gvir and co went and did. But it goes beyond that, because the ramifications might have hit the Israeli government of which Ben-Gvir is a part like an earthquake and the foundations are now looking decidedly crumbly.
In swipes from opposition parties, in keeping with that volcanic and match striking attitude, Ben-Gvir has been described as a pyromaniac for his actions, but it isn’t the opposition in the Knesset of course that can bring the government down from within, which is where the problems Ben-Gvir have caused actually lie.
Following much condemnation of Ben-Gvir’s inflammatory actions, another coalition partner party is now questioning whether they can remain associated with a government that includes Otzma Yehudit and again the Times of Israel explains all in this excerpt here:
‘Moshe Gafni, head of the Degel HaTorah faction of the United Torah Judaism party, says Ben Gvir doesn’t care about the “harm to the Temple Mount’s sanctity and the status quo,” alleging he is causing immense damage to the Jewish nation and causing unnecessary hate on Tisha B’Av, the solemn day marking the destruction of the Jewish Temples.
Gafni says the faction will have to “check with our rabbis whether we can be partners with him and will clarify this to the prime minister as well.”’
Now, where Benjamin Netanyahu survived the departure of the National Unity Party of Benny Gantz over his refusal to lay out an endgames for the war in Gaza, his majority reducing from 16 seats in the Knesset, back down to 4, Gantz’s party only joining government following the events of October 7th to strengthen the government’s hand and leaving when Netanyahu clearly was not planning on ending matters any time soon, the fact that the United Torah Judaism Party, a religious conservative party of non-Zionist Jews interestingly enough, although they still believe in occupying Palestine, so in that sense might as well be, has 7 Members of the Knesset, them leaving would leave Netanyahu 3 seats short of a majority whilst trying to hold together a coalition of 5 parties by that point, so this could potentially be a big problem for Netanyahu, if it comes to pass it’s very difficult to see how Netanyahu might hold things together. The alternative to placate United Torah Judaism potentially, would be to throw Otzma Yehudit out of the coalition. Get rid of Ben Gvir. The trouble is, they have 6 seats, in fact having stood on a joint ticket with the Noam Party and the Religious Zionist Party of Bezalel Smotrich, this coalition going into the last elections between them won 14 seats, so this wouldn’t solve anything for Netanyahu either. It seems pretty hard to see how Netanyahu’s government would survive matters here. Would they go forward as a minority coalition, frankly Netanyahu is desperate enough to try, even though what would be left would even more right wing and even more overtly Zionist. Anything to avoid those corruption charges though, but would Religious Torah Judaism really pull the plug on everything potentially at this moment in time? Does it depend on their Rabbis or on the likes of their leader Moshi Gafne?
Well Gafne has threatened to pull out of the coalition a number of times before and hasn’t, so perhaps his bluff might be called again here. Still, it looks like things might be worth keeping an eye on, and if nothing else it has shown the cracks that are growing within Netanyahu’s coalition. Even if it doesn’t collapse this time, can it really carry on like this until 2026? It looks less and less likely.
Meanwhile, in line with trying to keep himself in power at any cost and keep his coalition together, Netanyahu has once again scuppered peace talks before they’ve even got underway this time as leaked details of him moving the goalposts and insisting on new but completely unreasonable demands, expose it is him and not Hamas blocking the way to peace. Find out all about that in this video recommendation here and I’ll hopefully catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks