Christopher Pyne: The only issue the new coalition in Israeli politics has in common is their desire to see the back of Netanyahu

The new coalition in Israel hasn’t agreed on any major policy. The only thing uniting them is that Netanyahu has to go, Christoper Pyne writes.

In a classic case of “my enemy’s enemy is my friend”, political parties of literally the left, right and centre of Israeli politics have come together last week to end the 12-year reign of Bibi Netanyahu as prime minister.

The only issue the new coalition in Israeli politics has in common is their desire to see the back of Netanyahu.

Israel has endured four national elections in two years. Apart from the first scheduled election, the other three have been about Netanyahu’s opponents gaining a bare majority to bring him undone.

An hour before the deadline for forming a government, before a fifth election would have been automatically triggered, an unlikely ragtag bunch of disparate parties came together.

It includes parties of the right led by Naftali Bennett, who will be the first prime minister for two years, Gideon Saar, who until recently was heir apparent to Netanyahu in the Likud Party, and Avigdor Lieberman.

Also joining the government is the centrist party of Yair Lapid, who will be prime minister for the second two years of the four-year term, if the government lasts that long.

The left is included too, represented by the once dominant Labour Party that is now a shadow of its former self and the even further left party, Meretz.

For the first time in the history of the modern Israeli state, an Arab party, Raam, led by Mansour Abbas, will join the government.

Twenty per cent of Israeli voters are Arab Muslims, so in that sense it is a historic achievement for them to be represented.

Just how long this jalopy of a ship of state holds together remains to be seen.

The new government doesn’t agree on the role of Orthodox Jews in Israel, it doesn’t agree on the building of settlements in the Negev by the Bedouin or in the Palestinian Territories by Jewish settlers.

It doesn’t agree on economic policy. It doesn’t agree on the best way forward to achieve a peaceful two-state solution with the Palestinian Authority. The only thing that unites the coalition is that Netanyahu has to go.

The only thing that unites the coalition is that Netanyahu has to go. Picture: Sebastian Scheiner / AFP

Now that looks like it has been achieved, how do they stay together for another four years?

Netanyahu was prime minister twice, from 1996 to 1999 and then from 2009 to 2021.

He is the youngest and longest-serving Israeli prime minister since the State of Israel was formed in 1948.

He has transformed the economy of Israel into the successful technology based and innovative powerhouse that it has become through dint of hard work and good policy. Arguably he has not moved the dial on achieving a lasting peace with the Palestinians.

The peace process was further advanced by the Oslo Accords in the 1990s than it is now, which is a disappointment.

It may well be that he didn’t want to, as maintaining the safety of Israeli citizens has been a strong suit for him in domestic politics the past 12 years.

In foreign policy, Netanyahu has a better scorecard. He has hit Israel’s enemies when he needed to in Syria and probably Iran.

Importantly, as the Middle East has shifted from a dynamic of the Arab states being united in their opposition to Israel to a new paradigm where the Arab states are split along religious lines of Sunni versus Shia, he has concluded agreements called the Abraham Accords with Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates.

I met Netanyahu many times on my trips to Israel and when he visited Australia.

While I didn’t agree with everything he stood for, I have a high regard for his intellect, capability and doggedness.

Many politicians who were as rejected as he was in 1999 by his people would have given up.

Netanyahu didn’t. To paraphrase the words of That’s Life, sung by many a karaoke star but particularly well by Frank Sinatra, he “picked himself up and got back in the race”.

Ten years later he was back as prime minister and this time stayed for 12 years.

He stayed too long. He should have developed a successor and handed over to them seamlessly and graciously.

We have seen this movie before however – most great politicians have a fatal flaw, they don’t know when to go.

They start to believe they are indispensable, when the reality is that no one is indispensable.

Netanyahu now has to deal with a number of charges of corruption that have been hanging around him for some years.

While he was prime minister, he had a certain immunity, but that will change now and could hamstring him for the foreseeable future.

I wouldn’t write off Netanyahu for good. He might be down, but he isn’t out.

When he was challenged for the leadership of Likud, the biggest party in Israel, by another politician in Israel well known to me, Gideon Saar, he defeated him overwhelmingly.

Never say never.