Can Pathbreaking New Israeli Govt Last Longer?

Some of the measures in the agreed agenda of the new government are pioneering but controversial. The fragility of the coalition was palpable even before the Monday vote

- P R Kumaraswamy

The new Israeli government headed by Naftali Bennett (with Yair Lapid as the alternate prime minister) sworn in on Monday establishes several precedents and breaks barriers. Bennett became the first religiously observant person to head the Israeli government. Until now, all the prime ministers were notionally secular, even if they presented themselves as ‘observant’ due to political considerations; for example, even during foreign trips, Shimon Peres preferred to walk on Jewish sabbath than travel by car.

Leader of the Ra’am party Mansour Abbas broke the psychological Jewish-Arab barrier and emerged as the kingmaker of the new government. His willingness to break away from the Joint Arab List and explore coalition possibilities with Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu largely enabled the Islamist party to join the Bennett-Lapid coalition.

Despite having a woman prime minister in Golda Meir, female political representation in Israel has not been impressive. With religious and Arab parties not preferring women politicians, the task fell on mainstream parties. The current Knesset has the highest number of 30 women members (same as in the March 2020 election), and the new government has eight women ministers. Some of the key positions, such as interior, education, and transportation, are held by women. The Cabinet also has two minority ministers and the Ethiopian-born Pnina TamanoShata as absorption minister.