Here we go again. After seven weeks of negotiations Prime Minister Netanyahu announced yesterday that he had formed a government. Israel’s new ruling coalition is razor thin — 61 seats, the bare minimum. It is also comprised of five parties with very different, often competing, agendas. It is thus inherently unstable. Many commentators give it little chance of surviving for very long, given that the defection of virtually any single MK in the coalition can bring the government down at any time.

But the new coalition is also the most right-wing and ultra-religious in the history of the state. There are very few moderate voices, and no liberal ones. Prime Minister Netanyahu insisted that any potential coalition partners pledge to support two bills intended to circumscribe the independence and erode the authority of the High Court of Justice; only one of his partners refused to do so. The national-religious pro-settler Jewish Home party of Naftali Bennett lost significant power in the March elections (it now holds only eight seats), but still succeeded in its demands for enormous power in exchange for entering the coalition. In addition to a Prime Ministerial pledge to advance the so-called “NGO Bill,” aimed at shutting up and shutting down pesky human rights organizations, the Jewish Home received two critical cabinet positions: Bennett, an avowed opponent of the two-state solution, will serve as Education Minister, and his deputy Ayelet Shaked as Justice Minister. This is the same Ayelet Shaked who advanced the anti-High Court and NGO legislation, who advocated for the deportation of African refugees, and who champions the “Nation-State” bill that would forever enshrine the supremacy of Israel’s Jewish character over its democracy.

And so, as always, we have our work cut out for us. But we’ve been down this road before. Five and a half years ago NIF, our civil society sector, and the very notion of Israel as a liberal democracy came under fierce attack. We weathered that storm, and we learned valuable lessons.

First, we learned that we have allies.

Israelis from across the political spectrum stood up to push back against the “democracy recession” of 2010. One of those champions of democracy is, today, the president of the State of Israel. Across the ocean, leaders of some of the largest American Jewish organizations voiced their concerns, sometimes publicly, sometimes privately, about the threat to Israel’s democracy. And the NIF community, comprised of tens of thousands of lovers of Israel – in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and beyond – said, loudly and clearly to their brothers and sisters in Israel fighting for the soul of the country against an unprecedented assault on its democratic character: we’ve got your back. We will need all of these friends again now.

Second, we learned that changing times call for new strategies.

Last autumn, NIF unveiled our New Initiatives for Democracy (NIF-D), aimed at creating new infrastructure to strengthen Israeli progressive voices and at building bridges to those Israelis who are not in the liberal “camp” but with whom we share significant values and goals. I’m proud that NIF recognized the need for NIF-D and has already started putting this project in motion. Now more than ever, we’re going to need it.

So, here we are again. Facing difficult days and real threats to the democratic soul of the Israel we love so much. But we are not alone, and we know what needs to be done. We know our job is to serve as the engine, the support system for civil society and the democracy camp in Israel. In the immortal words of Victor Laszlo: “Welcome back to the fight. This time I know our side will win.”