Why did the Bennett-Lapid government collapse a year after it was formed? Was it because Yamina MKs dropped out like autumn leaves? Was it because Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu set his poison machine in motion? Because of the irresponsibility of Ghaida Rinawie-Zoabi and Mazen Ghanaim? Wow, what propaganda. As in, propaganda only in the eyes of whose who thought that it was possible to create in laboratory conditions some bizarre, patched-together entity and send it off to compete on the world stage, and expect it to come back with a medal.
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For hundreds of years, early scientists worked to turn cheap metals into gold. They didn't have scientific knowledge or methodical research, but they believed deeply in the materials' characteristics and their ability to change. Sadly, despite all the alchemists' efforts, mercury didn't become gold and Chinese cinnamon didn't guarantee immortality.
Still, this past year, political alchemists tried to convince us that combining the Right, the Left, Arab nationalism and a few opportunists – each of whom was coming from a different place and had different goals – was a formula for victory. The lab blew up, and they're still trying to convince us that the ruins are the Eiffel Tower with a diamond at the top. That's how alchemists are. The dream of gold is so entrenched that they don't believe the results of the experiments. Are they losers? No way! They managed to oust Netanyahu from the prime minister's seat. Clap for them. But that isn't enough to replace him with a stable government.
No one can predict the results of the upcoming election, but here's one idea for a study: a government based on hatred of Netanyahu and the people who vote for him, or a government that depends on Ra'am or the Joint Arab List, will never last a full term. And anyone who needed proof of the obvious got it this week.
The Bennett-Lapid government was based on a few innovation inventions, none of which could exist outside laboratory conditions. A prime minister who had only seven MKs behind him cannot lead a coalition. Politics are based on real political power, not coalition agreements or a three-legged chicken known as an "alternate prime minister." In reality, Yair Lapid can dictate the conditions, because he had three times as many MKs on his side as Bennett. It was weird that anyone thought differently. It's weird that anyone thought that the third time around, the idea would prove itself and we would have a golden age under a prime minister who wouldn't need votes.
Unlike Bennett, Lapid has significant political power, and even he won't be able to succeed for long. Yesh Atid, more than any other party in the current Knesset, is based solely on its leaders. All the Yesh Atid mechanisms were designed to ensure that Lapid stays in power and has the ability to appoint or dismiss people as he sees fit. Lapid did kick out Ofer Shelah, who announced that he intended to run in party primaries, and for now, all is quiet on that front. But a long-term stay in the government will produce others like Shelah. In other words – people who are sick of saying "Yes, Yair. Sorry, Yair." Yesh Atid's experiment rests on positioning itself between the passing fashion of "centrist" parties and a dictatorship. But Lapid is no Ben-Gurion, even though he has the support of extraparliamentary institutions. Lapid is subject to the laws of reality and is far from having the support of a majority of Jewish voters.
A government under Lapid will always need the Arab parties, the new and legitimate partners in the Zionist project. After the government fell, Public Security Minister Omer Barlev said, "The glass ceiling has been broken. I think there's a big chance the next coalition will include an Arab party, and if not, then the one that comes after it." Indeed, what has been broken isn't a glass ceiling, but rather the government. And if the next coalition or the one after it includes an Arab party, it won't last long, either.
A coalition is always made up of parties between whom there's a certain amount of friction, but are mainly united by something and have a shared goal. The Arab parties' goal is to eradicate the Jewish state. They can join a Zionist coalition only under the well runs dry, or until the next security crisis. And if you're about to say, well, we wanted to turn Israel into a "state of all its citizens" anyway, reality will respond – there aren't enough Jewish parties for whom that's a goal. And if, heaven forbid, there was enough political support for the idea of a binational state, it wouldn't be long before it turned out that the Jews' idea of a binational state is very different from the Arabs'. A coalition of all its citizens will fall apart, even if the alchemists don't give up their dream of turning straw into gold.
Yair Lapid declared this week: "We are the majority. The numbers are in our favor," and announced that the government fell apart in a friendly, truthful, and stately manner. A statistical majority based on friendship and truth doesn't crumble after a year, even if all the media outlets line up to sing the government's praises – and they did.
We can conduct the same experiment time after time in the hope of securing a result that cannot exist, but time after time the patched-up creation won't turn out to be a champion. Maybe, if the alchemists try a little harder, they can gild it in 9 karat gold before it expires.
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