Public Aims To Keep Gov’t From Convening, Functioning, Making Things Worse

“If there’s a government, it’s going to try to govern, and that’s not a good thing. I mean, just look at the last seventy-one years.”

Jerusalem, May 20 – The extended deadline for reelected Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to form a new governing coalition looms next week, but large swaths of Israeli society harbor the hope that the country can both avoid the hassle of another round of elections should his coalition-building efforts fail, and still prevent the parliament and government from functioning, which would only exacerbate the situation.

Netanyahu and his Likud Party earned the nod from a narrow majority of 61 legislators to form the next coalition government following the April 9 elections, and both he and his would-be coalition partners have tried to strike a difficult balance between making far-reaching demands with the knowledge that no coalition will form without them, and overplaying their hands. Israelis of many political stripes hope for a similar needle-threading phenomenon in the coming weeks and months, if not years, whereby they can avoid a replay of the grueling, unpleasant election campaign concluded last month, while also avoiding any lawmaking or policy taking shape, activities that have had a deleterious effect on the country for more than seven decades.

Legal experts differ on whether such a scenario exists in the realm of possibility. “If Bibi doesn’t form a coalition by the 29th [of May] that is supposed to automatically trigger new elections, probably in just a few months,” explained veteran radio commentator Hanan Krystal. “I don’t see an alternative – if there’s a government, it’s going to try to govern, and that’s not a good thing. I mean, just look at the last seventy-one years.”

“There has to be some middle ground,” argued political journalist-activist Hillel Gershuni. “OK, so he must form a government, I get that, but once he does, we have to find a way to keep that government from doing anything. Government interference has rendered large segments of the economy inefficient, overpriced, over-regulated, and just plain unsustainable. It’s not going to happen this way, with the parties as they currently stand and the election platforms for which they stood, but I’d like to see the prospective coalition members commit to engaging only in declarative, symbolic, or PR-type activities once Knesset convenes. Leave citizens and businesses alone. They’ve done enough damage.”

Most Israelis concede the hands-off scenario unlikely. “It’s too bad,” lamented a Jerusalem taxi driver. “The only proposal I think the Knesset should consider this coming session is one to transform the entire facility into a sausage factory, with the public able to view the process. It would be less off-putting than what they’ve got there now.”

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