Is Israel’s coalition government in jeopardy? When is it ever not?
Nearly a solid year of peace talks have seen the far-right factions in the current coalition, vehemently opposed to the idea of peace on general principle, threatening to collapse the coalition if the Netanyahu government makes any progress. The talks were destined to fail, because the coalition could never have survived success.
Now that the talks are essentially dead, the hawks are all happy, but the finality of the collapse is set to put intense pressure on the pro-peace partners in the government, notably Yesh Atid and Tzipi Livni’s tiny Hatnuah Party, to withdraw and force new elections.
Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid made peace talks a coalition for his involvement in the government, and is trying to spin their collapse as the Palestinians’ fault, in an attempt to keep his faction intact and keep his Finance Ministry portfolio.
Livni is similarly reticent about withdrawing from the coalition, but as the collapse becomes more apparent and the hawks get louder and louder about anti-Palestinian measures, both are likely to face growing calls from the constituents to stick by their pledges, and withdraw.
