Crisis averted, I guess. Benjamin Netanyahu cut a deal with Naftali Bennett literally minutes before the deadline, so he’s the proud leader of a brand new 61-seat majority coalition in the Israeli Knesset. Bennett himself will serve as Education Minister, which just makes sense given his zero experience in education, and Jewish Home MK Ayelet Shaked will serve as Justice Minister. Their party is also getting the post of Deputy Defense Minister. Al-Jazeera’s Noam Sheizaf isn’t lying when he writes that “this will be the most right-wing coalition in Israeli history.” That will likely mean more tough times ahead for Israel’s relationship with the EU and, at least until January 2017, the US.
It wouldn’t be entirely out of the question for this tenuous, hard-right coalition to hold together; Yitzhak Rabin managed to hold a slim 62 seat Knesset majority together coming out of the 1992 elections, even through a couple of party changes, until his assassination in 1995. But that was then, this is now, and Netanyahu is no Rabin. There are a lot of potential fault lines in this government, particularly between the ultra-Orthodox parties and the more secular Likud and Kulanu ministers, for a literal “50% + 1” coalition to overcome.
The Foreign Exchanges Companion 