The "right-wing bloc" is the creation of Benjamin Netanyahu; an amalgam of parties from the nationalist and ultra-Orthodox camp, joined together by signed declarations of loyalty to provide an unequivocal response to the amorphic blob showing signs of life on the other side of the political aisle. In the third election, the right received 62 mandates, but it still wasn't enough to overcome the left's 58 seats. The ritualistic, North Korea-style declarations of loyalty at the Prime Minister's Residence in Jerusalem were received with derision, rather justifiably, but they delivered an effective message nonetheless.
Outwardly, the unifying message went as follows: Everyone falls under Netanyahu's leadership, through fire and ice. But this wasn't just political unity; the bloc worked as an organic entity toward and fundamentally agreed on several short and long-term national goals, and it leaned on previous traditions of operative consensus. We saw it in action, and we liked what we saw. The same couldn't be said for the 62-mandate bloc, which sputtered and broke down like an old car pulling out of the lot.
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And here we are, on the day the next government is set to be sworn in, the right-wing bloc is crumbling. In Likud circles, the not-so-crazy claim is that Yamina's excessive demands outweighed the party's size in mandates, particularly in comparison to other coalition partners.
But what Yamina gave the nationalist camp and to Netanyahu was bigger than its weight in mandates. First and foremost, it entrenched Netanyahu's status as the irrefutable leader of the nationalist camp and entire right-wing bloc. Yamina voters knew they would get a Likud-led government, and voted to see their representatives serve as ministers in Netanyahu's fifth government.
What we can't forget is that this principle worked in reverse as well. Voters from all the other parties -- Likud and the Haredi parties -- knew they would be getting Netanyahu, but also the bloc's other partners, including Yamina. This was the source of the expectations, and also the source of the disappointment, for a great many supporters of the nationalist camp. The equal division of power with Blue and White and its satellites -- 19 mandates in total against the right-wing bloc's original 58 -- was somehow viewed as a legitimate price not just for a unity government, but for preserving the bloc as a type of right-wing and nationalist-conservative super-party.
This isn't just a story of "use and lose." On the deepest level, Yamina's resignation, or dismissal, also strikes a significant blow to the political right's ability to dictate the national agenda. In this context, Yamina's ministers are especially relevant. It was hard not to notice their refreshingly energetic and proactive work, particularly in the midst of the coronavirus crisis. Over the past few months, Naftali Bennett and Bezalel Smotrich were able to develop a new type of ministerial language in Israel; they exemplified the successful realization of the new political ideal, which individuals such as Yair Lapid and Stav Shafir promised to introduce but never actually matured past the Facebook phase. Many people took note and were left wanting more.
Netanyahu has a responsibility has the head of the bloc, and he needs to internalize something basic: He may have delivered a message of ideological leadership to the nationalist camp, but its disintegration also tells its supporters a story of petty politics. The bloc is gone; the faith is gone.
