Benjamin Netanyahu is a former member of Israel’s Sayeret Maktal special forces unit. Israel’s equivalent of Delta Force.
That job takes courage, intellect and professional skill.
Sadly, today, Prime Minister Netanyahu is showing a deficiency of all three.
On Monday, Netanyahu’s coalition government suspended its modernization of facilities at Jerusalem’s Western Wall. Those facilities would have allowed men and women to pray alongside one another more easily. The government also accepted hardliner demands making it harder for non-Jews to convert.
Why did Netanyahu surrender these concessions?
Because two ultra-orthodox parties in his Cabinet, “Shas” and the “United Torah Judaism”, demanded it.
But let’s be clear, Netanyahu is being wholly short-sighted. Shas and United Torah Judaism are fundamentally opposed to modernity, equal rights, and Israel’s tradition of secular civil society. They look down on women, refuse to serve in the Israeli military, and rack up vast welfare bills for the government.
And they’re not just problematic for Israel. Because Shas and United Torah Judaism are also fervent supporters of settlement construction in the West Bank. And those settlements are a key driver of Palestinian extremism and political anger. They make U.S. peace efforts of the kind that President Trump is now pursuing almost impossible.
Of course, Netanyahu takes a different approach.
He fears that without the support of these parties, his coalition-dependent government would fall.
But that’s the easy answer.
When one considers the Israeli Parliament (the Knesset), it becomes clear that Netanyahu has alternative ways to command a majority.
61 seats is the minimum necessary for a Knesset majority. At present, Netanyahu relies on United Torah Judaism’s 6 seats and Shas 7 seats (13 seats total) in order to maintain a 66 seat government. However, were Netanyahu to be bold, he could reach out to an alternate party.
An alternative such as Yair Lapid’s centrist Yesh Atid party.
Yesh Atid is a modern economics-focused party with 11 seats in the Knesset. But while Lapid and Netanyahu have had their tensions, both have shown a previous willingness to compromise. Indeed, Yesh Atid was a coalition partner to Netanyahu in his former government. More importantly, while Yesh Atid would only bring 11 seats to the government, that would still be enough to give Netanyahu a majority.
Ultimately, Israel’s great strength has always been its willingness to match courage to the pursuit of modernity. The Israeli military thrives, but so does Israel’s booming software development industry. Yet unless the Israeli government is willing to face down the extremists in its midst, the Jewish state will face an increasingly intolerant and repressive future.
