Yamina chair Naftali Bennett announced May 13 that he was abandoning plans to form a new government and send Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the opposition. The country was in flames, with Arabs lynching Jews and Jews lynching Arabs, all while Israel was waging another war against Hamas.

Since then, Bennett has practically vanished from the public eye, making no public appearances to explain his recent moves. Instead, he informs the country through briefings to the press. Bennett now says the proposed new government would not be able to meet the country’s current challenges, particularly the state of emergency in Israel’s Jewish-Arab mixed cities.

The ambitious blueprint for a new government had envisioned the creation of a new coalition of all parties opposed to Netanyahu by the end of this week. It was a bold plan, even revolutionary. It would have brought parties from the right and left together with the support of the Arab parties but without the ultra-Orthodox and most of the right. This all changed when the conflict with Hamas introduced a new variable and the security situation became a death sentence for the new government.

Bennett and his party had already been criticized by their right-wing religious base for the effort to establish a government of change, complete with demonstrations outside their homes. The pressure intensified when riots broke out in Israel’s mixed towns. Members of Yamina visiting the flashpoints were forced to leave in disgrace.