Netanyahu's complex coalition: Analyzing his defense of Smotrich and Ben-Gvir - opinion

Last week, I presented several responses that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave during his August 4 interview with Eric Cortellessa of Time magazine. Herein are additional details regarding an issue he addressed in the interview.

Time: “The Saudis say they want a Palestinian state, or at least they want you to be moving toward one eventually. How is it possible to strike a Saudi normalization deal when you have Ben-Gvir and Smotrich changing the conditions on the ground to rule out a Palestinian state, or even [a] ‘state minus,’ as you’ve called it?” 

Netanyahu: All Israeli governments have been based in parliamentary systems [and] are based on coalitions. Everyone’s done it. Previous governments even made a coalition with a party that is affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood and rejects the very survival of Israel. I didn’t hear any criticism about that. But one thing I can assure you, I run the show, I make the decisions. I formulate the policy.”

In fact, what Netanyahu said was that the two right-wing extremists, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, and Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister and a minister in the Defense Ministry, are members of his government because he had no alternative, due to Israel’s system of coalition governments.

However, he failed to mention that after elections, it is the leader of the party with the best chance of forming a new government who the president assigns to try and form a government. It is he who decides which parties will be members of this coalition government and the ministerial or non-ministerial posts each will hold.

Between April 2019 and March 2020, the elections to the 21st, 22nd, and 23rd Knessets took place; only the third was followed by a short-lived emergency government created by the Likud and Benny Gantz’s party, and an additional four right-wing and religious parties, to deal with the COVID pandemic.

Toward the election to the 25th Knesset, which took place in November 2021, Netanyahu decided to do everything in his power, by legal means, to bring together all the non-haredi religious parties – Religious Zionism (led by Smotrich) Otzma Yehudit (led by Ben-Gvir), and Noam (led by Avi Maoz), to avoid any loss of right-wing votes. This united list received 14 Knesset seats.

Even though Netanyahu’s new government had a comfortable right-wing/religious majority of 64 seats, Netanyahu was outmaneuvered by Smotrich, who gained seven Knesset seats, and Ben-Gvir (six), in their coalition negotiations with him. 

As a result, he had to give them critical and highly influential ministerial posts, for which neither was really professionally qualified. The two have caused immeasurable damage to Israel’s economy and its status abroad in the last 20 months.

Did Netanyahu really have no alternative, given the fact that neither Ben-Gvir nor Smotrich had an alternative option, except to go into opposition? According to Netanyahu, the distribution of his 64 Knesset seats was decided by the voters, “and also some of the other parties, who could have joined me [but] decided not to join me...

“I was very glad when one of them [Gantz’s National Unity Party] joined our coalition at the beginning of the war [October 2023], and I was sorry to see them leave [in June 2024]. It’s their decision. So, I think you should ask – that’s the way the democratic cookie crumbles.” 

Gantz joined a Netanyahu government on two occasions: in the 24th Knesset, and in the current one. On neither occasion was he offered to become an equal partner in an authentic, right/center, national unity government, despite a semblance of equality and the promise of rotation in the premiership halfway through the government’s official term.

In fact, in the government formed in 2020, Gantz was added to a 60-member coalition between the Likud and other right-wing and religious parties, in which his real power was limited. Netanyahu managed to avoid going through with the rotation by failing to pass the 2021 budget, which resulted in new elections. In the current government, Gantz had only minimal influence.

Last October, when the possibility was raised of Yesh Atid joining the government, together with Gantz’s party, Netanyahu refused to even consider ousting the Religious Zionist Party, Otzma Yehudit, and Noam as a precondition.

NETANYAHU is constantly accused of giving in to his haredi partners over the issue of enlisting ultra-Orthodox men for military service, as well as to his extreme right-wing national religious partners on numerous issues, to prevent any of them from leaving his government and bringing it down.

The Time interview did not deal with the haredim, but only with  Smotrich and Ben-Gvir’s policies, such as their objection to a possible deal with Hamas over the release of all the remaining hostages (both alive and dead) in exchange for an end to the fighting, and statements and actions by both, designed to lead to an annexation by Israel of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. 

Political survival

The usual explanation given for Netanyahu’s motivation is that it has to do with his political survival, against the background of his trials, his search for an extreme anti-democratic judicial reform, and his refusal to take responsibility for the catastrophe of October 7. However, the question frequently emerges as to whether perhaps he actually agrees with some of Ben-Gvir and Smotrich’s political positions, which are condemned abroad.

Time: “Smotrich once said that you are... “with us full on” when it comes to his West Bank annexation plans. Is he wrong?”

Netanyahu: “I don’t know if he said that, but if he said this, it’s not true, because I’ve not sought annexation. I’ve explained that our goal is to achieve a negotiated solution. So far, it hasn’t happened, and I hope it will happen one day, but I can’t see it happening without some substantial change in the Palestinian Authority.”

In a fact-check list provided by Time of statements Netanyahu made in the interview, on several occasions in the past Netanyahu did in fact openly support annexations by Israel. 

For instance, in January 2020, when president Donald Trump unveiled his Israeli-Palestinian peace plan at the White House, Netanyahu reacted by pushing forward a plan to annex the Jordan Valley and the settlements in the West Bank, covering “roughly 30% of the West Bank.” According to Time, Trump was furious, and “Netanyahu was ultimately forced to withdraw his annexation proposal.”

But regarding Netanyahu’s statements about Israel’s coalition governments: He compared his inclusion of Smotrich and Ben-Gvir into his current coalition with the decision of Naftali Bennett’s “Government of Change” (2021) to include the Arab Ra’am party in the coalition.

Leaving aside the libelous reaction of the opposition, headed by Netanyahu, regarding the alleged treasonous conduct of Ra’am’s leader MK Mansour Abbas, it should be noted that Ra’am joined the coalition, but not the government itself.

Ra’am’s main concern was with improving the status and situation of the Arab population in Israel, and dealing with the acute problem of murders within the Arab sector – not with issues connected with Israel’s security. On both of these issues there have been reversals since Netanyahu’s all-right government came to power.

The writer worked in the Knesset for many years as a researcher, and has published extensively both journalistic and academic articles on current affairs and Israeli politics. Her most recent book, Israel’s Knesset Members – A Comparative Study of an Undefined Job, was published by Routledge.