When Yamina MK Idit Silman's vote moved to the opposition, left-wing coalition members rushed to explain that there were still another six representatives of the Joint Arab List the government could work with. And although Joint Arab List leader Ayman Odeh's calls for rebellion obscured the potential, a solution – the isolation of Joint Arab List MK Ahmad Tibi – has been found.
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The man who was an adviser to arch-terrorist and Palestine Liberation Organization head Yasser Arafat and who visited and embraced murderers in prison is already a partner to the coalition government. The Balad and Hadash parties that comprise the Joint Arab List are problematic, but he is a brother. It turns out that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas thinks just like them, and reports of his efforts to enlist Ra'am and Ta'al in the effort to maintain the government were soon to come.
It is interesting to think exactly what diplomatic promises were made in return for Tibi's loyalty. The governments headed by the late Yitzhak Rabin and former Prime Minister Ehud Barak are beginning to appear hawkish in comparison to the government currently in place. The right-wing flank of the coalition, which for 10 months cooperated with the establishment and maintenance of the government that sold the Negev Region to Ra'am, allowed wild Palestinian construction in Area C, canceled the enforcement of illegal construction, passed the so-called electricity bill connecting illegally built homes in the Arab sector to Israel's electricity grid, evacuated the outpost of Evyatar, demolished the Homesh settlement, accepted an Iran nuclear deal upfront, brought the Palestinian issue back to the forefront, and canceled significant judicial reform, has suddenly begun to acquire something of nationalist spirit now that the scent of elections and the prospect of electoral thresholds are in the air.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett referred to himself as a "true right-winger" who does not transfer suitcases of money to Hamas and reverted to using the phrase "Judea and Samaria." Justice Minister Gideon Sa'ar passed a resolution to hold a hearing for candidates for the Supreme Court. Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked announced the establishment of five new communities in the Negev. Together, they all celebrated the legal authorization for connecting young settlements to Israel's national electricity grid.
But then it turned out that the funds to Hamas were now being transferred through banks, that Sa'ar had himself opposed Likud MK Yariv Levin's law to hold a hearing so that the Knesset and not the justices themselves would be tasked with appointing new appointments to the court, and that Shaked's "new" plan was in fact based upon a plan for the establishment of 11 communities dating back to 2011. And while the young settlements ultimately received approval, so too did all Israeli and Palestinian communities in Area C.
The essence of the story is clear: The Right does not have 70 Knesset seats because there aren't 70 right-wing Knesset members. The public did vote for the Right in mass, but those elected officials abandoned the camp. As with every other ideological position, a right-wing stance is not a matter of genetics. It must be translated into political decisions. The excuse that they came from right-wing parties and were to the right in the past is no longer enough. Was the late Prime Minister Ariel Sharon considered right-wing after the 2005 disengagement from the Gaza Strip? Are Tzipi Livni and Dan Meridor still right-wing? Is Ehud Olmert, who as prime minister ceded everything to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, a right-winger?
Yamina party members in the coalition ceased to be right-wing the second they chose personal whims over ideology. Despite the nationalist statements, they continue to rule out the possibility of establishing a right-wing government with Opposition Leader Benjamin Netanyahu. They prefer to stay with the Meretz and Ra'am parties, are dragged into "koshering" the Joint Arab List, and are at peace with realizing the PA's interests. Therefore, in contrast to the repeated and nonsensical demands for Netanyahu to move aside so that they can join a right-wing government, we must clearly say that there cannot be a right-wing government in the current Knesset because not a single trace of their "right-wing ideology" remains.
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