New research shows why the nationalist camp in Israel sometimes acts to topple its own right-wing governments: Because right-wing governments are bad for the right-wing.
The findings are to be presented on Monday at a Tel Aviv University gathering entitled, "40 Years of Israeli Control Over the Territories: The Effect on the State of Israel."
Professors Gideon Doron of Tel Aviv University's Political Science Department and Dr. Maoz Rosental of the Open University will present their findings regarding right-wing governments. They say that the right-wing parties of the past 25 years - Tchiyah, Kach, Moledet, National Union - have not had a significant influence on national politics. These parties, they say, have not had great success in shifting government policy towards their own preferences - mainly, the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria (Yesha).
The research notes that the parties were most successful when they actually helped topple right-wing governments - specifically, the Yitzchak Shamir government in 1992, and Binyamin Netanyahu's government in 1999.
As to why the right-wing toppled its own governments - a question often asked in despair by many in the nationalist camp - Doron and Rosental explain that essentially, right-wing governments are more "dangerous" to the residents of Yesha than left-wing coalitions. This is because the former have the political capital to actually execute withdrawals, while the left, generally, does not.
This is why, when Shamir appeared headed for an agreement in Madrid and Netanyahu was headed for one at Wye Plantation, their right-wing coalition partners took active steps to topple them. In both cases, control was subsequently given over to left-wing governments, which were unable to continue the process begun by their predecessors.
The researchers determine that government policy towards Yesha is, in general, not affected by political pressures from the residents. Instead, they say, policy is rather based on the security conception that a withdrawal is not necessarily good for Israel, and that the status quo is therefore considered an acceptable situation.