Less than two years after the last elections, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has fired Finance Minister Yair Lapid of Yesh Atid and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni of Hatnua from his Cabinet and announced plans to dissolve the Knesset and call for new elections to “receive a clear mandate from the people to lead Israel.”
He said that while his previous administration had achieved much in service of the nation, its current iteration had been forced on him. “The ruling party under my leadership, the Likud party, did not get enough mandates,” he said.
So whose fault is that?
Netanyahu stressed that he refused to continue to govern with open dissent from within the coalition, urging the people of Israel to provide him with a safe majority from which he could lead.
The far-right Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, on the other hand, has openly dissented from Netanyahu’s policies without losing his job.
Now, it seems, Netanyahu and Bennett have drawn closer.
After weeks of criticism from Lapid and Livni, Netanyahu lashed out at his two former coalition partners.
Lapid, he said, undermined Israel’s “aggressive policy against Iran’s nuclear program” by criticizing the prime minister’s decision to boycott Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s speech at the UN General Assembly.
The Yesh Atid leader undermined the government’s policy to demand the Palestinian to recognize Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people when he said in an interview he didn’t think it was necessary to make that demand, Netanyahu said.
Both Lapid and Livni, the prime minister added, criticized plans to build some 1,000 housing units in Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem located beyond the Green Line, with Livni saying the move was “irresponsible.”
“Well, Livni is the last one who can preach to anyone about responsibility,” Netanyhu said.
No love lost, it appears.
Both Livni and Netanyahu attended a ceremony at the President’s Residence on Tuesday evening, sitting alongside each other. But sources close to Livni said it was only after leaving the President’s Residence that Netanyahu called her to fire her.
“It’s a pity you did not have the courage to do it eye-to-eye,” Livni told Netanyahu, according to the sources.
The Yesh Atid party lashed out at Netanyahu following the announcement. “The prime minister failed in the governing of the State of Israel and in taking care of the Israeli public’s needs. The frightened act of firing the ministers is an act of cowardice and shows the loss of control.” the Yesh Atid party said in a statement on Tuesday evening.
“We regret that the prime minister chose to act irresponsibly towards the nation and drag the state of Israel into an unnecessary elections campaign, which will cause damage to the economy and to the Israeli society, and all of this out of small political interests, weakness and concession to the haredim, the Likud members and interest groups.”
I lived in Israel during the 1996 elections (which first put Netanyahu into the prime minister’s office) and the 1999 elections (which removed him). If you think Israeli politics are exceptionally fractious and bitter and depressing, with a serious shortage of decent and honorable figures, you’re right.
What do our Israeli readers think? Is there any chance that Bibi will not still be prime minister, with a more hardline government, after the coming elections? (I was about to write “Is there any reason to hope,” but it occurred to me that there are even worse alternatives.)
