Resistance within the left-leaning Labor Party was powerful, but a coalition deal has been sealed: Israel's defense minister, Ehud Barak, will run the government with Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu. It's not a recipe for bold new ideas.
Ehud Barak does a good impression of a brave man. He says he has no fear of Benjamin Netanyahu. He stands defiantly before a special congress of his Labor party, in front of more than a thousand fellow members, and makes his message clear: Labor will form a government with Netanyahu and his allies on the far right. Booing interrupts him. Hecklers and other speakers, full of emotion, warn against closing ranks with their political foes.
There has been fierce controversy over whether Barak's Labor Party should legitimize the government being forged by Prime Minister-designate Netanyahu. But after long negotiations, the delegates at this special congress vote to support Barak: Yes, Labor should join the coalition.
With that vote on Tuesday, Netanyahu's coalition won a new majority of 66 seats (out of 120) in the Knesset, Israel's parliament. He had already signed contracts with two other parties -- the ultra-right Yisrael Beiteinu ("Israel is Our Home") and the ultra-orthodox Shas party. The agreement with center-left Labor puts this right-wing coalition on a broader footing.
There's one problem, though: In Ehud Barak, Netanyahu has joined with a dicey coalition partner. The coalition debate has split Labor and weakened its leaders. Around half of its left-leaning members reject a partnership with the right. No one knows how strong party discipline will remain when it comes to controversial Knesset votes. So even after stretching to the left, Netanyahu's coalition remains unstable.
REPRINTS Find out how you can reprint this SPIEGEL ONLINE article in your publication. Its members also hold diametrically opposed world views, so it's questionable how long Netanyahu will be able to hold this hodgepodge of diverging ideologies together. Of course, he will be able to play Labor and the right-wing parties against each other. But it will be hard for Netanyahu to take courageous steps. If he wants to appease the right wing of his coalition, he risks losing the trust of the left. And if he moves too far in satisfying the left, he can assume the right-wing members will leave. The consequence may be that Netanyahu won't make any important decisions -- just to keep the government intact.
Barak refused to make two important foreign policy concessions to Netanyahu. They failed, for example, to reach an agreement on a "two-state solution" in the coalition contract. But Netanyahu did agree to continue peace negotiations with the Palestinians and to respect existing treaties. Previously, he didn't want to hear a thing about that.
NEWSLETTER Sign up for Spiegel Online's daily newsletter and get the best of Der Spiegel's and Spiegel Online's international coverage in your In- Box everyday. Netanyahu has also agreed to make peace agreements with all of Israel's neighbors. Barak, who is expected to remain defense minister, will also participate as a full partner in diplomatic procedures.
These commitments, however, are less spectacular than they sound. Final decisions about the peace process are, in Jerusalem, for the prime minister to decide. So Barak will ultimately be able to influence diplomacy only from the sidelines, and he will be limited to his domain in the Defense Ministry. Netanyahu will determine the partners and agenda for any negotiations.
And the man in line to be Israel's foreign minister in the new government is Avigdor Lieberman, who has such a virulent reputation for racism and antagonism with Israel's neighbors -- including Egypt -- that he may not be welcome in many foreign capitals.
But anyone who still believes in diplomacy in the Middle East still has reason for cautious optimism. Labor's admission to the government provides Netanyahu with more elbow room on the left. If he decides to make diplomatic advances towards the Palestinians, he can always rely on the country's second-strongest party: Zipi Livni's Kadima, which will sit in the opposition for the time being. She could support any peace process from the outside, assuming it takes shape in Netanyahu's government.
If it does, though, Netanyahu's big challenge will be to come up with new ideas -- for quieting his coalition partners on the right.
Pierre Heumann is the Middle East correspondent for the Swiss newsweekly Weltwoche.
© SPIEGEL ONLINE 2009 All Rights Reserved Reproduction only allowed with the permission of SPIEGELnet GmbH
Get SPIEGEL ONLINE International everywhere you are
The European Economic Crisis in Numbers
Highlights from the latest issue of Germany's newsmagazine.
Read Full Article »