Whoever listened to Meretz lawmakers' attack on the government last week might have been given the impression we are seconds away from calling elections.
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Meretz party members were furious that Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit had authorized construction in the Samarian outpost of Evyatar.
MK Mossi Raz said he did not think he could tolerate the move, which he said was "one too far." Meretz MK Gavriela Lasky said, "Those who want to legalize construction in Evyatar in effect want to break up the government," while Esawi Frej said his fellow coalition members "are showing us the way out of the government."
Spoiler alert: Meretz isn't going anywhere. It won't bring down the government. These are just empty threats.
Meretz has been forced to relinquish its ideology, and it's not alone.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has relinquished his opposition to the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the submarine scandal, Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked is finding it difficult to pass the citizenship law that would replace a temporary order regulating the status and residency of Palestinian spouses of Arab Israelis. New Hope leader and Justice Minister Gideon Sa'ar and his fellow party member and Jerusalem Affairs Minister Ze'ev Elkin, who committed to assisting fledgling settlements, haven't touched the issue due to opposition from Foreign Minister and Prime Minister-designate Yair Lapid and the left-wing flank. Meretz and Labor may have to call on coalition members to hold them back as they threaten to retaliate, but there is not much they could do anyway.
In the meantime, the only party sticking to its guns is Ra'am, which succeeded in putting an end to forestation work in the Negev region local Bedouin see as a threat to their community. Ra'am taught the coalition a lesson in issuing ultimatums when it passed the electricity bill allowing over illegally built homes to be hooked up to Israel's national grid.
No one is going to break up the government, and the reason for that is clear: No coalition member has a chance of improving their prospects in another election. Some in the coalition, thanks to the media, have been able to do whatever they want. Sa'ar has appointed a new attorney general in a way that raises quite a few questions at the time as he is pushing legislation targeting Opposition Leader Benjamin Netanyahu. Finance Minister and Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Lieberman, and Lapid is marching toward the Prime Minister's Office despite violating countless campaign promises wholesale.
For now, the government is stable. Its members are clinging to their Knesset seats. Yet the operative term here is "for now." Israeli politics are a notoriously dangerous game, even more so when 61 coalition members are involved.
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