In the end, as with Netanyahu’s last government, the only red line the prime minister set and held was control over the country’s foreign and defense policy. The army, the diplomatic corps, the police, prisons and intelligence agencies, the pseudo-ministries variously called “strategic affairs” and “intelligence,” the Knesset’s powerful Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee — these remain in the hands of the ruling party, after it relinquished the state’s finances, housing reform, employment, education, health, anything that might have proven it was meaningfully focused inward on improving the daily lives of ordinary Israelis.

And when all that had been auctioned off, what did Netanyahu have to show for his generosity? A coalition of 61 seats set against an opposition of 59.

Worse, it’s a coalition that already clarified in the negotiations that it would not be beholden to Netanyahu — that is, would act as a coalition — on no small number of issues.

One example: Kahlon obtained Netanyahu’s agreement that his party had “freedom to vote” — i.e., did not have to adhere to coalition discipline or risk the coalition turning against it on its own bills — on any reforms to the High Court of Justice, and likely over the “Jewish nation-state” bill as well.

That concession means that those bills are effectively dead on arrival, despite enjoying widespread support in the soon-to-be established 34th Government. Zionist Union, the Arab Joint List, Yesh Atid, Meretz and Kulanu are a 63-seat bloc that, if unified, can block any such legislation.

Read this article in full at Times of Israel.