With Netanyahu uninterested, and his media allies attacking Gantz, the illusory unity likely won’t materialize

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When Benny Gantz joined the emergency government at the start of the war, opinion polls awarded him a record 40 seats in the next Knesset. But since his resignation from the government in June, the National Unity chair’s star has waned. Now polls show that Netanyahu’s Likud has retaken the lead, and that a political comeback by former prime minister Naftali Bennett could push Gantz’s party under 20 seats.

From this nadir, the idea of a unity government has regained appeal. Gantz’s National Unity party colleague, MK Matan Kahana, tells me so.

“We’re done with boycotts,” he explains. “We’re not boycotting anyone, including Netanyahu, and we’re calling for a national unity government.”

I ask him if this is an admission that quitting the government was a mistake, as the polls show.

“No,” Kahana replies. “The government we were part of was not a unity government but an emergency government. My vision is a broad government that includes Lapid and Lieberman.”

Kahana’s envisioned government will include the chareidim, but not far-right ministers Ben-Gvir and Smotrich. That sounds suspiciously like a boycott, I challenge.

“When you form a government, you outline basic policy guidelines,” Kahana replies. “Anyone who accepts those guidelines is welcome, but I can’t imagine that Smotrich and Ben-Gvir would accept the basic guidelines of such a government.”

National Unity is hoping that a consensus “draft law lite” will entice the chareidim into full partnership.

“Our chareidi brothers are important political partners, and I see them as partners in every political constellation I can think of — but not as kingmakers,” says Kahana. “Shas is adamant that a unity government is necessary, they understand that Ben-Gvir is getting in the way. We face so many challenges, and we have to work on them together.”

Chareidi figures such as Shas chair Aryeh Deri have expressed support for a unity government in principle, and they aren’t the only ones. Some Religious Zionist figures, such as Minister of Aliyah and Integration Ofir Sofer, are making similar noises.

“The people want unity and we have to compromise and make it happen,” Sofer tells Mishpacha.

Everyone’s talking unity, but it’s hard to see how the gaps can be bridged. One figure expressing reservations about the move behind the scenes is Prime Minister Netanyahu. Bibi’s attitude can be inferred from the talking points of a number of right-wing media personalities in direct contact with him — like political commentator Yaakov Bardugo, who claims to Mishpacha that it’s all the brainchild of President Yitzchak Herzog, who wants Gantz rather than Gallant as defense minister.

“President Herzog is trying to promote a deal for Gantz to return as defense minister in exchange for a soft draft law,” says Bardugo. “Gantz and Eizenkot have ties with chareidi MKs — Gantz personally has a very good relationship with [MK] Yaakov Asher. Benny Gantz wants Gallant’s job. We saw that when he met the prime minister of Qatar, an enemy country, without informing the government.”

With Netanyahu uninterested, and his media allies attacking Gantz, the illusory unity likely won’t materialize.

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Meanwhile, the IDF is trying to comply with the attorney general’s order to immediately draft 5,000 chareidi yeshivah bochurim. Accustomed as it is to fixing mistakes with mistakes and covering up scandals with scandals, the IDF bureaucracy’s approach to the chareidi draft is typical. Instead of trying to figure out how to restore trust after the first wave of draft notices fell flat, the IDF intends to send 5,000 more — and this time, candidates will be phoned first, but in a fashion so clumsy it undermines the seriousness of the entire project.

Several recordings I’ve obtained demonstrate the army’s inept attempts to recruit chareidi bochurim. On one end of the line is an inexperienced private trying to talk over the din of a crowded call center. On the other end is the bochur, the prospective recruit.

“Hello, this is the IDF. Are you interested in enlisting?” the caller asks.

When the bochur says no, the soldier’s reaction is always along the lines of: “Noted. I’ve recorded your answer. Thanks, bye.”

But bumbling recruitment efforts aside, the danger for chareidi bochurim has not subsided. “The situation is worsening, and the only way out is to pass a new law,” a senior Agudas Yisrael source told me this week. “The problem is Netanyahu’s enduring optimism.”

Bibi is sure he’ll be rescued by events. Agudah party chair and Housing Minister Yitzchak Goldknopf issued Netanyahu an ultimatum, threatening to withhold support for the state budget until a new draft law passes final reading in the plenum.

Netanyahu’s response was an ad hoc guarantee to pass the law in three readings within the next three weeks. Bibi intended to keep the promise secret and subject to revision, but Agudas Yisrael immediately plastered it on the front page of Hamodia, the party’s organ. That’s what’s called boxing in.

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“Contrary to what Bibi is signaling, I don’t see the law passing so quickly,” a minister from Agudas Yisrael told me this week.

But even if the draft law doesn’t pass, it seems the chareidim won’t rush to dissolve the government, given the lack of alternatives. To be blunt, after the judicial reform’s collapse and the body blow dealt to Justice Minister Yariv Levin by the High Court last week, the government can no longer count on 61 votes in the Knesset plenum. On the most substantive issues, we’re effectively back to the days of deadlock, albeit with a slight advantage for the right, which dominates what is little more than a glorified transition government.

One prominent opposition leader certainly sees it that way, judging by the way Avigdor Lieberman was strutting around the plenum last week. His Yisrael Beiteinu party has been surging in opinion polls, and no chareidi MK will take the risk of dismantling a bad government only to get a worse government in which Lieberman sets the tone.

If there’s a living embodiment of the concept of the “lesser of two evils,” it’s the miraculous survival of Netanyahu’s sixth government.

“I don’t know what’s less realistic, forming a unity government or passing a draft law within three weeks,” the Agudah figure told me despairingly, summing up the general loss of faith in Netanyahu’s promises.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1029)