At the start of next week, a new government is expected to be established. After four elections, this is welcome news. Still, we hoped that it would be a fully right-wing one, but in the end we found ourselves with a strange patched-together government whose chances of survival are unknown. This is not the government of our dreams, but the Bennett-Lapid coalition is a less bad option than allowing the political chaos to continue.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
The stomach pains, the concerns, and the hopes are diluted with a mix of joy and sadness. Sadness over the end of the Netanyahu era, an outstanding leader who is ending his time in office battered and bruised by a media and legal witch hunt. The sadness is because the Right didn't know how to implement its large electoral strength, and lost power.
The joy, apart from an end to the doubts, is because for the first time a person who wears a kippa will be sworn in as prime minister. I hope that Naftali Bennett, as the first religious prime minister, won't disappoint us. I don't want to see his kippa hidden or apologized for. I want it present, representing a non-sectoral religiousness, that keeps the good of the public as a whole in mind. Bennett used to be afraid to deal with religious issues, and left that hot potato to the Haredim, abandoning the ring. It's time to fix that. Starting Sunday, the burden of proof is on him.
Despite the worries of the Haredim, it doesn't look like the Bennett-Lapid government will make any big changes to the status quo. Labor leader Merav Michaeli can babble about public transportation on Shabbat. Yamina has a veto and party officials say they won't allow that to happen, but it's not certain that six MKs are enough to prevent it. Yamina's plan is to promote a law for Haredi conscription according to the Defense Ministry's framework, which Haredi legislators have already approved, and a law that would allow chief rabbis of cities to handle the conversion process. This is not a comprehensive solution to the conversion crisis, but it's something. Yamina, which has the Interior and Religious Affairs ministries, intends to change the process by which municipal chief rabbis are chosen and start appointing national-religious rabbis to these posts, and later on hand the citadel of the Chief Rabbinate back to the religious Zionists. If only. The burden of proof lies with Yamina.
Despite MK Bezalel Smotrich's fears, the Bennett-Lapid government also isn't going to destroy or dry up settlements in Judea and Samaria. The budget has remained the same, even for infrastructure and roads. True, Michaeli can stick spokes in the settlers' wheels. We certainly won't see the amazing progress on roads in Judea and Samaria that we saw during Smotrich's short time as transportation minister. But the person responsible for that is none other than Smotrich himself, who went for broke and refused adamantly to form a right-wing government of 59 MKs, with the prime minister abstaining.
The new government can be expected to form an administration charged with the Palestinian Authority's creeping takeover of Area C, as well as one to regulate young settlements, but lest there be any doubt, there is no room for false hope. What Netanyahu couldn't do with a right-wing government and with Trump in the White House, Bennett won't do with Meretz in the coalition while Biden is in office. We can hope that the right-wing members of the government, and they include plenty of ideologues, will manage to stand firm against the pressure that can be expected from the US administration. The burden of proof is on them.
Despite the concern of the Right about Michaeli joining the Judges Selection Committee, ultimately, Ayelet Shaked managed to secure her own place on the committee as first in the rotation and later as justice minister. As justice minister, Shaked failed to rein in the State Attorney's Office and bolster oversight of it, but she did appoint four justices with right-wing or national leanings to the Supreme Court. She intends to lead a similar move now, until there is a conservative majority on the court. If only. The burden of proof lies with her.
The main mission for the Yamina lawmakers is to rebuild the faith of the public, many of whom feel betrayed. They need to prove that their controversial move was not made because of some childish dream of conquering the Prime Minister's Residence on Balfour St., but out of true concern for the state of Israel. We've said it, haven't we? The burden of proof is on them.
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
