The 2017-2018 state budget passed at 1 a.m. Thursday, and now Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can rest relatively easy, as the two-year budget almost guarantees that he can remain in office until 2019, unless he makes a serious political blunder.

Under normal circumstances, the annual budget season is a dramatic time, because if it doesn’t pass by the end of the year, or by the end of March if the government asks for an extension, an election is automatically called.

A two-year budget gives the prime minister an extra year of without that threat hanging over his head while he tries to balance the wants and needs of all of his partners. A two-year budget gives a sitting prime minister a political edge and more stability than he would normally enjoy, because it takes the opportunity to rock the boat away from his coalition partners.

Therefore, the budget vote is usually the height of parliamentary theater, with the opposition doing whatever it can to be disruptive. The longest filibuster in the Knesset’s history, with then-Likud MK Michael Eitan speaking for 10 hours and seven minutes in 1993, took place during a budget vote. In 2013, thanks to the opposition, led at the time by MK Shelly Yacimovich (Zionist Union), the final budget vote took 18 consecutive hours – and their original filibuster plan was to go on for a full day. Last year, the opposition submitted 32,000 objections to the budget, though that plan was thwarted by a Knesset House Committee crackdown.

One would think that for a budget which will last a full two years and essentially keep their political rival in office, the opposition would have brought their A-game, but this year its performance was lackluster, with the voting lasting a mere eight hours and the speeches on a tight schedule so no one would have to stay at work past midnight.

It’s hard to understand why the opposition didn’t put up much of a fight. They certainly know how to do so. Continue reading