Obama's Roadmap for the New Israeli Government
Mazal Mualem sketches a guide to the new Israeli coalition for US Pesident Barack Obama.
The new Israeli government that US President Barack Obama will meet this week on March 20 is the result of deep political changes brought about by the recent Israeli elections. The facts that no governmental changeover took place and that Benjamin Netanyahu is still prime minister are deceiving; nothing in the Israeli political map remains as it was. New powers have risen, shifting the center of gravity within the government. Below are five characteristics of the new map of Israeli politics, five things that the American president should know about before his arrival.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a weak, outmaneuvered prime minister.
It would be advisable for the American president to become familiar with the “new stars” and the agendas that they promote. Netanyahu is flanked on one side by Naftali Bennett, chairman of the HaBayit HaYehudi party that is backed by the right-wing public and considered the party of the settlers. On Netanyahu’s other side stands Yair Lapid, who, about a year ago, founded Yesh Atid, the party of the middle class that took the Israeli center by storm, both in the affluent cities and in the periphery. Netanyahu's old allies, the ultra-Orthodox parties that were his security net in the last four years, are nowhere to be seen. While Netanyahu suspects that Bennett and Lapid are conspiring to dismantle his government, he is forced to live with them.
The surprising alliance between Bennett and Lapid that earned the “New Politics” moniker shaped Netanyahu’s third government that is being sworn in today, March 18. But mainly, this alliance created opportunities for socio-economic and civil change. It has also forced the Israeli-Palestinian conflict off the agenda.
