What sort of government are Lapid and Bennett forming?

• Published date: 08 June 2021
• Date: 08 June 2021
• Author: Caroline Glick
• Publication title: Israel National News (Israel)

According to Lapid, Bennett and their media chorus, Israel is about to get a "unity government." Once it is formed, all will be sweetness and light. The political fights that have afflicted us will fade away as the nation undergoes a collective therapy session.

The other side—the political right—insists that the two men are forming a leftist government that is willing to sacrifice Zionism to achieve their highest goal: ousting Benjamin Netanyahu from the Prime Minister's Office.

The easiest way to figure out which side is telling the truth would be to read the coalition agreements signed by the parties set to join the Lapid-Bennett government. Those agreements would tell us what Lapid and Bennett have promised to do in their "unity" government. Unfortunately, Lapid and Bennett refuse to publish the contents of those agreements until after their government is sworn in.

Last Friday night, journalist Sharon Gal reported on Channel 13 News how the Islamist Ra'am Party is presenting the agreement they signed to its voters in Arabic. In its written statements and in television interviews on Arabic-language channels by Ra'am Knesset members, the Islamist party claims that Lapid and Bennett agreed that their "unity" government will end enforcement of building and zoning laws in Arab-Israeli villages and cities. Orders to destroy illegal structures will be frozen. Fines for illegal buildings will be canceled.

According to Ra'am, Bennett and Lapid have agreed to grant effective autonomy to the Bedouin in the Negev. Over the past 15 years, Bedouin have illegally seized massive swaths of state lands and built illegal settlements on them. Ra'am claims that Lapid and Bennett agreed to freeze the so-called Kaminitz Law, which empowers state authorities to reassert the Israel Land Authority's control over seized lands through, among other things, the destruction of illegal construction.

So as far as Ra'am is concerned, the political right's assessment of the Lapid-Bennett government is accurate. Lapid and Bennett's government will jettison Zionism.

If they were forming a unity government, last week Yamina MK Ayelet Shaked wouldn't have felt it necessary to lock Orbach in a room in the Knesset and ban him from speaking to anyone who opposes what she and Bennett are doing with Lapid and the rest of their coalition partners.

Lapid and Bennett's refusal to deny Ra'am's claims, or reveal the actual agreements, prevents the public from checking the veracity of Ra'am's...