The center-left bloc and the Knesset’s two Arab factions will be unable to hamstring the incoming rightist government, Construction and Housing Minister Ze’ev Elkin told Ha’aretz, but predicts the coalition will likely implode after two to three years, leading to snap elections.
Speaking with the left-wing paper in an interview published Friday morning, Elkin, a former Netanyahu confidante who bolted the party to join a group of Likud rebels who formed the New Hope faction – later incorporated into the National Unity alliance with the center-left Blue and White party – said efforts by the new Opposition to bring down or even hamper the new government would likely be futile.
“This new government is homogeneous. It will be impossible to challenge it ideologically, the way they did to our very diverse, divided government.”
“They are 64 [MKs], we are 56. And among us are two Arab factions with five seats each.”
“All the tricks of pitting the Left against the Right, the night-long filibusters in the Knesset, and tactical delays – none of that will work. Not this time.”
Elkin predicted that external threats to the Netanyahu government will fail, but added that the coalition will inevitably implode, when Public Security Minister-designate Itamar Ben-Gvir feels pressured by his base to challenge the government for failing to change the status quo.
“This government will last for two-to-three years, at least. And we won’t topple it, it will collapse from within.”
“Every partner there has a devote, tough base which expects them to maintain the government for its full term – except for one [partner]: Itamar Ben-Gvir. In practice, his real voter base is two-and-a-half, maybe three seats’ worth of voters.”
While the Religious Zionist Party alliance with Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit surged from six seats in the previous election to 14, with polls indicating most of the new voters backed Otzma Yehudit, Elkin claimed most of Ben-Gvir’s backers were one-time voters usually aligned with the Likud.
“The rest of those who voted for him this time were mostly from the Likud who were convinced that he will be able to restore law and order and to show the Arabs who is boss.”
“After two or three years as Public Security Minister, [Ben-Gvir] will lose them. They are shifting sands. The same thing will happen to him that happened to Liberman when he promised ‘No citizenship without loyalty’,” referencing the Yisrael Beytenu party’s 2009 slogan, when the faction won 15 seats.
“In order to win them back, [Ben-Gvir] will have to go into the next election season as an outsider, and not as part of the establishment. He will leave in a huff, blame Netanyahu the coward who limited what he could do, hamstringing him.”
