Netanyahu’s Challenges On Knesset's Opening Day
Mazal Mualem lists the five challenges which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must face with the opening of the 19th Knesset summer session.
Over the last four years, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has become accustomed to feeling right at home in the Knesset. In the absence of an effective opposition, Netanyahu enjoyed a temporary, artificial state of peace. In his government sat the ultra-Orthodox parties, former Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman and former Defense Minister Ehud Barak; safe and sound, they did not make life too difficult for Netanyahu. In the absence of a diplomatic process, and postponements when dealing with explosive issues such as cutbacks in the budget and drafting the ultra-Orthodox — peace and quiet was retained in Netanyahu’s backyard.
However, as the Israeli military cliché puts it, “Every Saturday has a Saturday night” — meaning ''There’s always the day after.” Starting from Monday (April 22), when the summer session of the nineteenth Knesset opens, Netanyahu will be forced to get accustomed to the fact that the Knesset has become a stormy and dangerous battlefield for him.
Towards the opening of the summer session, I list five challenges which the 19th Knesset will present the Prime Minister with in the coming months.
First challenge — the battle over the state budget
