There’s talk on the Israeli political right of a “done deal” between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump. According to senior members of the HaBayit HaYehudi party, one of Netanyahu’s main coalition partners, the deal has been clinched. Netanyahu realized that he has no choice but to go along with the president’s grand quest for Israeli-Palestinian peace, or at least to play along and hope that the Palestinians are the ones who derail it.
To that end, the prime minister will have to change the makeup of his coalition. The current government, the most right-wing government in Israeli history, will not survive a significant diplomatic process entailing difficult concessions on Israel’s part. In recent days, the heads of HaBayit HaYehudi, Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, have begun preparations for the day they are forced to pull out of the government and cross over to the opposition benches.