Gidi Weitz is right (“Haaretz,” July 10) — the situation is depressing. The public is tired, the judiciary is weak, and Benjamin Netanyahu and his aides are at the peak of their madness. But I want to disagree with the last sentence in his article. Weitz wrote: “It seems there’s no one left to prevent Netanyahu and his partners from leading Israel to a place from which there may be no return.” No way back? What in what’s been done so far is irreversible?
The nightmare coalition has been in power for more than two and a half years. Its plans are malicious, and the level of execution — abysmal. At worst, it has 15 months left until the elections; at best, seven or eight. A few months before the elections, it will hardly be able to pass legislation or make significant appointments — it will be election season. The liberal camp has survived these dreadful two and a half years, battered and bruised. The great and impressive civil struggle in the country’s history that the camp led has stopped this crazy coalition. We just have to hold on a little longer, maybe a few months, until the real threat — the ability to change the regime and bring structural changes — fades away.
Regarding security issues and human lives, the government still has the capacity to cause damage until its very last day in office.
Assuming for a moment that the current polls hold true and Netanyahu’s bloc is defeated in the next elections, how long will it take a corrective government to repeal all the distortions of Shlomo Karai, Ariel Kallner, and their fellow lawmakers? One intensive week of legislation — and all their laws will be gone. Most of these laws haven’t even passed yet. These laws are so extreme and absurd that there’s no chance that even Naftali Bennett or Avigdor Lieberman would want to keep a law that guarantees an 80% tax only on certain types of nonprofits. A sane government could, within a few weeks, appoint a strong, independent civil service commissioner who would begin to rebuild the ruins. Quite a few senior private-sector executives would agree to come in as reserve duty, Section 8.
Right after that, it would be possible to lead the election of a serious State Comptroller (the current one finishes the term in July 2026), who would rebuild this prestigious institution. There are enough former Supreme Court justices willing to restore the respect the institution once commanded. It’s a bit more complicated but still possible to lead to the dismissal of the police commissioner—not based on who appointed him, but on the police’s terrible performance and the political atmosphere dominating it. It would be possible to bring back commanders, investigators, and detectives who left the police during the “dark years” and would be happy to return to help rebuild it.
More complicated would be the appointment of the four judges currently missing from the Supreme Court, which would put it back on track. Abolishing unnecessary government ministries (how will we live without the Ministry of Tradition and the Ministry of Heritage?), eliminating the ministerial office in the Defense Ministry responsible for the Civil Administration, new appointments in the Judea and Samaria District, and perhaps a chance to restore some sanity to the madness occurring in the West Bank. Assuming reasonably that the legal advisor survives and the Supreme Court president remains in office, a normal government could, within a few months, turn these years into a distant nightmare.
All that remains is to win the elections. Currently, Naftali Bennett and Avigdor Lieberman are marching into Netanyahu’s trap. They promise zero cooperation with the Arab parties. This is a huge mistake. Instead of strengthening the Arabs who want to integrate and influence, this will strengthen the extremists who want to boycott and isolate themselves. From a practical standpoint, it’s also unwise. The electoral damage they will suffer following more moderate formulas (“we will not rely on them”) is minimal. The chance they will need Mansour Abbas’s votes is high, and only if this option remains open will there be a chance to separate the ultra-Orthodox from Netanyahu.