Israel Forms a Unity Government to Tackle COVID-19

What Happened

Israel’s political factions are rapidly converging into a unity government, as the country’s COVID-19 crisis forces its formation. Under an emerging deal announced on March 26, a government will be formed between Benny Gantz of the Israel Resilience Party and Benjamin Netanyahu of the Likud party. The deal will see Gantz be the speaker of Israel's parliament, the Knesset, before becoming the country's foreign minister. Netanyahu, meanwhile, will remain prime minister until September 2021, at which point, Gantz will take over the post.

Why It Matters

Israel’s factions are facing an imminent COVID-19 economic crisis on top of a critical health one, as lockdown measures to contain the virus cause unemployment to skyrocket. The lack of a viable government has delayed some of the more long-term measures needed to offset the fallout of the crisis, including passing a new budget for 2021. The increasingly all-encompassing quarantine measures also required the legitimacy of a formal government, rather than Israel's former caretaker government.

What's Next

The emerging emergency government follows the patterns of previous ones, in that it comes as Israel faces a major crisis that temporarily forces politics aside. This was the case in the unity government formed in the days leading up to the Six-Day War in 1967, as well as the 1984 unity government that came amid the Lebanese Civil War intervention. Yet like those governments, this one is also unlikely to survive past the end of the crisis now yielding it. Internal political divides between Gantz's centrist party and Netanyahu’s right-wing allies are almost certain to reemerge, potentially bringing down this unity government in the future. For now, however, the COVID-19 emergency has no foreseeable end date, giving life to the new coalition.

For now, Israel will be able to tackle COVID-19 with a new measure of political unity. But its other internal divides will await the day the emergency passes to resurface.

The unity government is also unlikely to end Netanyahu’s legal woes. As the speaker of the Knesset, Gantz would probably reject an immunity bill for Netanyahu, who faces an ongoing corruption trial that was recently delayed until May. The charges could put Netanyahu’s political future into question, though with the COVID-19 crisis, it’s entirely possible the trial will continue to be delayed.