As the government in Tel-Aviv lunges from crisis to crisis, Israel appears to be confronted with instability yet again. Having witnessed four elections in two years, the government appeared to have lost its balance on Thursday after a member resigned, depriving the ruling Yamina alliance of a parliamentary majority.
In a surprise move, Idit Silman, the coalition party’s chief whip, resigned and without informing key leaders. Arguably, the resignation may be connected to an ongoing in-party dispute about whether chametz ~ leavened or raised food ~ should be allowed in hospitals during Passover, a major Jewish festival. Jewish customs forbid the foods during the period.
“The Jewish identity of the State of Israel is our right to exist here,” Ms Silman has been quoted as saying by The Jerusalem Post. “Injury [to that] without any regard for the public and for the values I represent, is a red line for me.”
Ms Silman’s move threatens the Israeli government, which has been focused on seeking close ties with Middle East leaders and on the Ukraine conflict. It bears recall that Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was sworn in last June amid one of the country’s worst political crises. After Israel witnessed four elections in two years, Bennett’s Yamina alliance emerged victorious in a historic power-sharing deal.
The unlikely coalition was formed with eight parties on the left and right-wing divide, verily ejecting the government of long-term leader Benjamin Netanyahu. The Yamina alliance won last year’s elections by only a tiny margin. If one more party member were to follow Silman, and if the opposition Likud party manages to gain the necessary majority to push for a no-confidence vote, Israel could face yet another set of elections.
Mr Netanyahu, who now leads the opposition, commended Ms Silman for her decision in a video, saying that she was “welcome back home to the real right.” The former Israeli leader also called on other members of the ruling coalition to follow suit. Ms Silman’s resignation may not have an immediate effect, though. Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, does not sit until May 8.
For now, the infighting over bread in hospitals on Passover has thrown the fragile alliance into disarray. But the exit of Ms Silman, a 41-year-old former health sector professional, raises the possibility of another round of parliamentary elections less than a year after the Bennett government assumed office. While the incumbent cabinet remains in power, it is now hamstrung in the 120-seat Knesset and will, in all probability, struggle to survive.
For devout Jews, the mere presence of leavened bread and other food runs counter to religious tradition. However, the country’s Supreme Court had ruled in 2021 that hospitals could not bar patients from consuming such food.