Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has often, including in recent days, spoken with longing of his second government, established in 2009 in partnership with his ultra-Orthodox allies and the Labor Party headed by former Prime Minister Ehud Barak. It was a fairly stable government that saw out almost four years of its term, during which it enjoyed international support by dint of the close ties between Barak and the US administration and the expectations generated by Netanyahu’s 2009 Bar Ilan speech. As long as Barak served in the government, the diplomatic stalemate of Netanyahu’s second government was considered bearable and something that could be contained.
The guidelines of that government expressed a commitment to restart negotiations with the Palestinians, including Barak’s demand that the government work to advance the Middle East peace process within the framework of a regional peace conference. This demand helped Barak obtain the approval of his party’s institutions for joining the Netanyahu government. Labor’s accession to the government put an end to the direct and indirect contacts for entering the coalition Netanyahu was conducting with then-chairwoman of the Kadima Party, Tzipi Livni, whose party had gotten 28 Knesset seats in the elections. In talks held at the time, the parties spoke extensively of negotiations with the Palestinians, which at that point had gotten to a very advanced stage between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
The makeup of the coalition that he formed with Barak could not have been better as far as Netanyahu was concerned: It created a false impression of a desire to move the diplomatic process forward through the Labor Party and gained him relative calm on the international front. In fact, Netanyahu did not advance the process, but rather he put it on hold, something that won him relative calm from the settlers and the extreme right wing of the Likud. A truly magic formula.
After the 2013 elections, Netanyahu resorted to the same formula. The first coalition agreement was signed with Livni, who by then was heading a new party called Hatnua, which ran on a diplomatic process ticket. Livni was determined to join the government and not to revert to her frustrating time in the opposition, and was quick to clinch a deal. Netanyahu promised that he would be committed to the diplomatic process and Livni was put in charge of the negotiations with the Palestinians and tasked with reaching an agreement ending the conflict. But this time, too, Netanyahu had no intention of pushing the negotiations forward.
Netanyahu did, in fact, have a broad-based government with a diplomatic agenda in the spirit of two states for two people; Livni, who was also appointed justice minister, traveled the world and met with Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat. Netanyahu, on the other hand, through his special envoy to the talks, attorney Yitzhak Molcho, made sure that nothing concrete would emerge from the closed-door meetings. As far as he was concerned, the illusion of negotiations had an important role vis-a-vis the United States.
Netanyahu is now facing a new reality. On the one hand, he won the elections and strengthened the Likud, bringing it 30 Knesset seats. On the other hand, the emerging coalition is composed of right-wing and ultra-Orthodox parties, at a time when relations with the United States are sliding uncontrollably down a slippery slope.
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