The new Netanyahu right-wing and neo-liberal coalition will give settlers and rich people more executive power than any previous government in Israel has until now. With the Housing and Industry ministries in their hand, and political ally Moshe Ya’alon as the new defense minister, the settlers are very pleased by the new Netanyahu government.” The Head of the Samaria region (the northern part of the occupied West Bank) Gershon Mesika said to Ynet news site: “It does look a wet dream – Ya’alon on defense and Ariel on Housing.” The Ynet piece quotes other settler leaders who were extremely satisfied with the new coalition. The settlers also did very well in the internal Likud primaries, with many of their favorites – Moshe Feiglin, Tzipi Hotovely, Yariv Levin and Danny Danon – ranking in high places on the united Likud-Yisrael Beitenu list.
The Jewish Home party (formally known as the National Religious Party) registered an all-time high of 12 seats in the last elections. The party leader, Naftali Bennett, a former software entrepreneur and now Economics and Trade Ministry, served as Benjamin Netanyahu’s Chief of Staff from 2006 to 2008, and during this period he ran Netanyahu’s primary campaign to lead the Likud party. On 31 January 2010 Bennett was appointed as Director General of the “Yesha” Council, the umbrella organization of occupied West Bank settlement municipalities, and led the subsequent struggle against Israel’s so-called “freeze” of settlements later that year. Bennettt resigned from the Likud in 2011 and joined the Jewish Home party, while announcing his candidacy for the party leadership. On November 6, 2012 he was elected as head of the right-wing religious party.
With the help of Yair Lapid, the new Treasury minister and neo-liberal leader who formed a pact with Jewish Home leader Bennett during coalition negotiations, the settlers were able to fulfill two of their most important political goals: replacing Ehud Barak with a more hospitable defense minister, and taking over the Housing Ministry. The Defense Ministry is the final authority on all civilian projects in the West Bank, while the Housing Ministry can help speed up the bureaucratic process and finance projects in the occupied territories. The Housing Ministry has special importance in the right-wing effort to establish a Jewish presence in Palestinian neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem. Shai Piron, the rabbi and Yesh Atid new Minister of Education, ruled on an Internet forum against the sale of real estate to Palestinians. Piron, who has a background in education and is largely seen as a progressive rabbi within the religious Zionist community, used to answer religious questions on Kippa, a website geared toward religious youth. In 2002, in response to a question concerning real estate in the city of Haifa, he wrote that it is “forbidden to sell a house to an Arab.”
But, hours after the new right-wing and neo-liberal government was sworn, Israel’s opposition members announced an emergency meeting called by Hadash, aimed at battling dangerous anti-democratic and racist new legislation expected to be passed by the nascent coalition.
An invitation sent to opposition MKs said the new government “is starting out with a series of dangerous anti-democratic moves.” The letter cited the raising of the minimum threshold for parties in national elections from 2% to 4%, the demand for a special 65-MK vote to topple a sitting government, and the re-submission of several anti-democratic bills as signs indicating where the new coalition is headed.
“Increasing the threshold for parties to 4% endangers democracy. It is not the small parties who threaten the stability of the political system, it is not the small parties that hold corrupt primary races, and it is not the small parties who bring in people void of ideology and principals,” said Hadash MK Dov Khenin. “The ‘new politics’ embodied by [Naftali] Bennett and [Yair] Lapid is a politics of bullying and oppressing of minorities.” “Joint action by the opposition on the government’ first day in power is a good sign as to our ability to produce a joint agenda and battle for Israel’s democracy,” MK Khenin added.
The Knesset’s new opposition is made up of 52 MKs from Labor, Meretz, Hadash, Kadima, Shas, UTJ and the two Arab parties. Raising the electoral threshold would force some of the parties to join forces ahead of the next coalition to ensure they keep their representation at the Knesset. Hadash, two Arab parties and Kadima polled each less than 4% nationwide. Six weeks of negotiations following the elections resulted in a 68-member-strong right-wing and neo-liberal coalition led by Benjamin Netanyahu and made up of four parties: the joint Likud-Beytenu list with 31 Knesset seats, Yesh Atid with 19, Jewish Home with 12 and Hatnua with six. It won the support of the Knesset by 68-48, with four abstentions.
