Lapid, not Bennett, to be strongman of Israel’s next government

Barring any last-minute surprises, Yamina chair Naftali Bennett will be sworn in as prime minister of Israel on June 13. Unlike any of his predecessors, he did not form his own government, and he will not control it. It was Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid who was mandated by the president to establish the new cabinet.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will head to the opposition benches after 12 consecutive years in office. In the last few years, he dominated Israeli politics, singlehandedly controlling every aspect of government, in a manner so extreme that he was accused of authoritarian tendencies.

What will the new government look like, and who will actually run it? It will probably take a few months for the extent of the changes to become clear. It seems as though the center of power in the new government will not be concentrated in one person. As information about the coalition agreements starts to leak out, Bennett is looking like a weak prime minister, subject to pressure from all sides. It is not at all clear how he will be able to govern.

While questions regarding the kind of government that Israel can expect are of enormous significance, the only answers so far like in slogans like “anyone but Netanyahu” and platitudes like “government of change” and a “government of healing.” They appear aplenty in the foundational documents of the new government with banalities and bromides like, “The government will work to mend the rifts between the various parts of Israeli society and fortify Israel’s foundations as a Jewish and democratic state, in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence.”