Israel’s government faces crisis after Idit Silman quits

In a resignation letter to Israeli PM Naftali Bennett, the government’s de facto whip said she was resigning over disagreements about the country’s Jewish character.

Israelis protest in Jerusalem on Wednesday after a surge in attacks that has left the government vulnerable to charges it is weak on terrorism. Picture: Getty Images

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s government faces a crisis after a member quit the ruling coalition, leaving it without a majority in parliament less than a year since coming to power.

Idit Silman, the coalition’s de facto whip, in a letter to Mr Bennett late on Wednesday, said she was resigning over disagreements about the country’s Jewish character. She has clashed with the Health Minister over whether leavened grain products should be allowed in hospitals during the coming Passover religious holiday. In Jewish tradition, such products are removed from public spaces and not consumed during the holiday.

Her resignation leaves the government with 60 members backing it in the 120-member Knesset. The coalition can continue to govern without a majority but it will struggle to pass laws, requiring support from opposition members. With one more resignation, the government could collapse. That would give the opposition a potential majority in a vote to dissolve parliament and send the country to a fifth election in a little over three years.

Still, even if a second coalition member resigns, the opposition would struggle to form its own government without the support of the Joint List, a union of Arab Israeli parties, to dissolve parliament and set up new elections. Political analysts are sceptical that could happen due to the Joint List’s animosity toward former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the opposition leader.

While the Knesset is in recess for the next five weeks the opposition would need the government’s support to hold a vote to dissolve parliament.

Chen Friedberg, a senior lecturer of political science at Ariel University, said it was unlikely the government would dissolve before parliament is back in session.

Israel has held four elections since 2019, with voters divided over whether Mr Netanyahu should rule while on trial for corruption.

Mr Bennett came to power in June after a mix of left-wing, centrist and right-wing parties, including for the first time an independent Arab party, united in their opposition to Mr Netanyahu. The parties’ deep ideological differences have created an unwieldy alliance. Members have clashed over West Bank settlements, Palestinians and questions of religion and state.

“Unfortunately, I cannot lend a hand to harming the Jewish identity of the state of Israel,” Ms Silman, a member of Mr Bennett’s right-wing Yamina party, wrote in her resignation letter. Mr Bennett blamed months of incitement against Ms Silman by Mr Netanyahu for her defection. He said coalition leaders are committed to maintaining the government. “The alternative,” he said, “is more elections and then maybe more elections, and a return to the days of dangerous instability to the state of Israel.”

If another member of Mr Bennett’s bloc defects and a vote is held to dissolve the Knesset, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid would become the interim prime minister under a rotation deal reached when the government was founded.

Polls show Mr Netanyahu’s Likud party remains the most popular, especially among right-wing voters, but he lacks a clear majority to form a government of his own. Mr Netanyahu could also form an alternative government without new elections. This, too, would be challenging.

Without the Joint List, Mr Netanyahu has 54 members in his right-wing nationalist camp. He would need to entice at least seven more. Members in Mr Bennett’s right-wing and religious party, which numbered seven after elections and is now down to five, are aligned with Mr Netanyahu, but formed an alternative coalition after he failed to get 61 members to support him due largely to his corruption charges.

The crisis comes after a burst of terrorist attacks that has left the government vulnerable to charges from the right-wing opposition that it is weak against terrorism.

The opposition could potentially prevail if Mr Netanyahu agreed to yield the prime minister role. So far, he has vowed to continue leading his party. For now, Israeli political analysts believe the current coalition could survive until March 2023, when it needs a majority to pass a budget. Failure to pass it would automatically trigger new elections.

“The only guaranteed thing is we’re back in a crisis mode,” said Yohanan Plesner, president of the Jerusalem-based think tank the Israel Democracy Institute.

The Wall Street Journal