The sound of the clock ticking toward the end of the government can be heard around the government table and in the rooms of the coalition factions. A week has passed since the dramatic resignation of MK Idit Silman and her joining the Opposition. The dust has settled, the emotions have faded and what is left is mainly politics.
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At the cold political level, from the prime minister to the last of his ministers, and to the MKs who replaced them under the Norwegian Law and are sitting on the plenum benches in their stead – everyone understands that the name of the game is time: how much is left until the government train will reach the final station, and how much can be drawn out to delay the inevitable.
As we know, time is elusive. You can't feel or realize it, but you can definitely feel it pressing, oppressing you and putting your back to the wall. No one has been born who can stop it, but it's always possible to try, and this is Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's political mission, one he shares with his partners.
There's no need to waste words on what a nightmare elections in the foreseeable future are for the prime minister and his Yamina party. The governing party doesn't have a significant base, and there's no need to talk about its popularity and sympathy. Outside the office, there's nobody waiting for Bennett.
The response is, as we've said, to play for time. Bennett, who is trying to position himself as Mr Security, is waging a battle of retreat and delay that is familiar in military parlance, a tactic in which the enemy overpowers and tails you. This is supposed to delay their progress while consistently retreating to a more secure place from which to fight.
While he repulses the surprise political attack launched against him, Bennett hopes to carry out right-wing legislation and activity, wink at new communities from the "anyone but Bibi" sector, and maybe, with plenty of luck and persistence, succeed in temporarily righting the ship. At the same time, in Yamina, Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, Deputy-Minister Abir Kara and MK Nir Orbach are also playing for time by backing Bennett to different degrees, in hope of finding themselves an entry ticket to the next Knesset or improving their bargaining position for the day time runs out.
Meanwhile, in the framework of "preservation" efforts, Bennett is making sure to praise and to exalt Kara, who is currently seen as the weak link. In a clumsy social media post, whose goal was transparent, Bennett said, "there are no walls that Abir can't break through." It seems the next wall Abir will break through will be the coalition's retaining wall.
Away from Yamina, they are also opting to play for time. Defense Minister Benny Gantz's Blue and White wasn't rushing anywhere from the beginning; even before Silman's resignation, the defense minister's target date has been the day the rotation is carried out. It's an open secret that Gantz doesn't rate Lapid (to say the least), and, more than that, he is working to disrupt his plans. He is also using the time to put spokes in the wheels of Bennett; in practice, he is applying a freeze to settlements in Judea and Samaria, taking care of budgetary pensions, making trips for talks with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and King Abdullah of Jordan, and isn't behaving like someone who is too concerned by the uncompromising political talk about the possibility of a departure from the "change" bloc and the establishment of another government in exchange for becoming prime minister.
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The fact that Gantz will determine the fate of the rotation also explains Foreign Minister Yair Lapid's playing for time. You don't need a polished political brain in order to understand that the alternate prime minister's interest is to ensure that as many days pass as possible so he can reach the yearned-for date in August 2023, in which he will realize his dream and enter the Prime Minister's Office.
On the Left, if we agree with the assumption that Gantz and Lapid are centrists (as they aspire to be depicted), time creates a mysterious paradox. It's precisely the side that is most uncompromisingly opposed to the prime minister are the ones who will seek to draw out as much time as possible in order to stay in their position.
The "Anyone but Bibi" ideology is the main pillar of defense for Meretz and the Labor party, and Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz's remarks about bringing hametz (leavened bread products) into hospitals on Passover, which dragged Silman into carrying out her political move, only sharpened this point and clarified the danger. The "Anyone but Bibi" ideology, for the left-wing parties and their leaders, is the only one, and is more important to them than anything, even time. This position is also shared by Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who is maintaining a relatively low profile.
Absent from this political analysis, like many others, is the New Hope party. Again, with regard to the Silman story, and almost consistently, Gideon Sa'ar's party has been sidelined. What it does is almost unimportant, and nobody shows special interest in it.
Passover is here, and the Israeli government is like the song Had Gadya. Everyone is trying to play for time to maintain the same government, but for absolutely different reasons, interests, and ideologies. When will this construction collapse within itself? It's hard to know, but now one thing is already completely clear – it's only a matter of time.
