The Likud Party under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's command repelled Zionist Camp leader Isaac Herzog's legions, which threatened to overrun government headquarters on March 17. This week, as the ministers of the new government hole up in their offices, they will discover that the election campaign was a romantic walk in the park compared to the exhausting battle for survival that awaits them on the road to the next elections. Sixty-one Knesset members from five parties (Netanyahu's coalition) — on the right and the radical right — secular, religious and ultra-Orthodox, will awake each day to a new conflict.
Almost 30 ministers and deputy ministers who will be tied up with the affairs of their ministries and with weekly Cabinet meetings, special Cabinet meetings and ministerial committees, will be confronted by 59 opposition lawmakers who, as one, will constantly try to topple the government. Members of the opposition in the Knesset will devote all their resources to identifying cracks and weaknesses in the unstable wall of the coalition.