Former Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu emulated the behavior of President Donald Trump. Netanyahu adopted the much of arrogance and narcissistic attitudes that Trump manifested throughout his presidency. Netanyahu became a carbon copy of Trump in his style of governing, although Bibi had an eight-year head start on Trump. Like the former President, for Netanyahu the entire Government was about him and what he did. Netanyahu could not assign power and wanted no strong, independent Ministers. He rarely delegated authority to others and wanted all the public images of the Israeli Government to be about Binyamin Netanyahu. While Bibi was certainly more intelligent and more organized than Trump, his management style reflected the exact same type of admiration for authoritarian leadership as did Trump.
Like President Joe Biden, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has so far not evidenced any of these traits in his leadership of the Government of Israel as he progresses into his second 100 days. Netanyahu is now leading the opposition in the Knesset and pull the political levers just as Trump is trying to do from Mar-a-Lago. Bennett so far, however, has remained oblivious to any storm that Netanyahu is creating and impervious to Bibi’s attacks on the Government. Bennett is a manager and able to allocate power to those around him with no need to be in the constant limelight. If he succeeds in the next two months to enact a budget for the fiscal year that satisfies his coalition, Bennett’s shared Government alliance with Foreign Minister Yair Lapid may well last for its entire term.
During this winter session the Parliament faces the annual challenge to pass a budget, but life will be different this time than it has been during the last four years of the Netanyahu era. Since 2018 the Israeli Parliament has not enacted passed a budget but has operated on a pro-rated budget based on the 2018 budget levels. As a result of being in a political stalemate plus having held four elections in this period, Israel has not passed a new budget. While recognizing the significant challenge that he faces given the extremely broad-based coalition that he has, unlike his predecessor, Bennett is determined to obtain Knesset passage of his budget.
To be clear the budget fight will be very intense especially among the rival factions within the coalition as well as demands and protests which undoubtedly will be mounted by the ultra-Orthodox charedim, who are in the opposition. The most challenging issue for Bennett, however, will be how forthcoming he and the rest of his coalition will be to the interests of Ra’am, the Israeli Islamist Party, which is a full member of the coalition. Most analysts understand that Mansour Abbas brought his party into the Government, for the first time, with an understanding that Bennett would make significant budgetary allocations for Israeli Arabs. Ra’am is seeking increased government support for schools, roads, housing, and infrastructure which has been lagging far behind many of the other parts of the country. There undoubtedly will be threats and counterthreats to dissolve the Government before the debates are concluded. If Prime Minister Bennett can manage to cobble together sufficient support to meet Abbas’s demands, this unusual coalition may well be able to maintain power for four years.
Politically speaking, Bennett will need to manage his own party, which is one of the smallest groups in the coalition, but which could also bolt. While they appear today to be more right-wing than Bennett, and they will actively contest or challenge him, ultimately, they will accept his leadership after he makes a concession or two. Being in power is too seductive for them to relinquish it in a political fight over “principles”.
Perhaps what is most sad and even somewhat amusing is that Netanyahu is beginning to mount all of the traditional opposition attacks on a ruling Government, but he is now merely an observer and critic. It must be assumed that Netanyahu is watching with amazement as Bennett governs without the edge, fearmongering, and threats that Bibi employed during his extended term in office. While Trump has not yet reached the same level of marginalization as has Bibi, it too might soon be on the way, especially as both of these former heads of governments are unlikely to avoid forever their separate days in court.
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