Israel as a surrealistic canvas
Were a committee tasked with deciding which of history’s greatest artists would best be able to depict what happened in Jerusalem on Monday, Salvador Dali would certainly have to be a leading candidate.
Not the realist Gustave Courbet, nor the romantic Francisco Goya, and definitely not the idealist Michelangelo. But rather Dali, surrealism’s giant.
Why Dali? Because he is the master of painting things out of place: a melting watch on a barren tree, a hand emerging from a man’s forehead, flying tigers. That is one of the defining characteristics of the surrealist movement: the representation of items not normally connected.
And what could be more out of place, more incongruous, more not normally connected than on the one hand, the State of Israel prosecuting a sitting prime minister, and on the other hand, at the exact same time, deliberating whether to extend his term in office and allow him to try and form yet another government.
What
Israel witnessed on
Monday – the beginning of testimony against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Jerusalem District Court,
while at the same time various parties were testifying
Representatives of New Hope, who had been mediating between Yamina and Yesh Atid, were left hopelessly begging Rivlin for more time after a six-hour faction meeting in which they could not figure out how to handle the situation.
Yamina officials told The Jerusalem Post two months ago that their strategy was to receive the second mandate from Rivlin to form a government only after Netanyahu received the first mandate and failed. Not only has that strategy not changed, it has been endorsed by the leader of the largest party in the anti-Netanyahu bloc, Yair Lapid.
According to the deal in the works, Bennett will become prime minister for the first two years, even though Lapid won 10 more seats than he did in the election. Lapid would serve out the remainder of the term that is set to end in November 2025. That timing was the easy part of the agreement.
The hard part is how to handle policy and portfolios with a wide range of parties that do not see eye to eye on key issues. Bennett wants right-wing parties to control key ideological portfolios, such as Justice, Education and Culture, but Lapid has to bring assets to the parties in his bloc, too.
If Rivlin will give Netanyahu the mandate for 28 days, that would give Bennett and Lapid plenty of time to close the deal. But it also gives time for Netanyahu to do his own political maneuvering, which is his expertise.
Maybe he will find a way to get the Religious Zionist Party to join a coalition backed by Ra’am (United Arab List) despite so many firm statements by its leader, Bezalel Smotrich, ruling it out.
Or perhaps Netanyahu can find the formula to persuade Bennett to make a deal with him instead. Such a deal could guarantee Bennett the leadership of the Likud and the Right for years to come.
Meanwhile, the political crisis will remain unresolved.
We will all have to just continue to be patient, lingering in limbo. •