It is hard to imagine that 20 months after the outbreak of the Gaza war, the government of Israel may collapse – not over the most horrendous security failure in the country's history

None of these chipped an inch of plaster off the edifice of this coalition of blood; it was even strengthened by four shameless Knesset seats.

It is only now teetering because the politician at its head failed in his efforts to ensure that 80,000 young Haredi men who are subject to conscription would receive a perpetual exemption, padded with billions of shekels for the parties that represent them in the government.

On Wednesday, the three Haredi factions said they would back a bill dissolving the Knesset. The fact that the Shas party joined in the threat shocked the prime minister and his people. Is this Aryeh? Our Aryeh? Yes. Dery is subordinate to his super-extremist rabbis, who defer to their Ashkenazi brothers. If it were up to Dery, he would turn off the lights in the government compound. But not this time.