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Israeli opposition leaders are stuck in last-minute frantic negotiations to nail down a minority government that could end Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s 12-year reign as prime minister of the Jewish state.
The coalition unlikely, which sits between the political spectrum – from the far-left Meretz party to the ultranationalist Yamina, anchored by centrist Yesh Atid – has already garnered 57 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. It also needs the support of the four-seat Islamist party Ra’am to overcome the 61-seat threshold and form a government.
The inherent “government for change” has until Wednesday to convince President Reuven Rivlin that they can win a vote in parliament and replace Israel’s former prime minister.
Netanyahu’s replacement could be former defense minister Naftali Bennett, whose party has only six seats after leaving a member who would not support the coalition. Bennett could work alongside former TV presenter Yair Lapid, head of Yesh Atid, as the rotating prime minister, as he led the coalition together during back-to-back negotiations.
Bennett, 49, who was once Netanyahu’s chief of staff, was handing out cabinet briefings that could have been with Lapid on Sunday night, while right-wing protesters gathered at the homes of him and other Yamina leaders.
Ayelet Shaked, Bennett’s political partner and potential justice minister, received extra police support after threats against the right, as Netanyahu pushed for street protests calling Yamina a traitor to the Zionist cause.
Lapid said on Tuesday that the continuing threat of violence against Netanyahu’s rivals is the first reason for ousting the prime minister. Among those living under police protection, he said Bennett, Shaked, the attorney general and Netanyahu were prosecutors and several journalists who were on trial for corruption.
“We have all been threatened with violence and murder,” Lapid said at the opposition meeting, acknowledging that the coalition faces “numerous obstacles”. If successful, Lapid continued, then “it will be calmer, the ministers will go without being encouraged to work [hatred], without lying, without always trying to instill fear ”.
Netanyahu called the opposition alliance a “fraud of the century” and said it would weaken Israel.
“What will he do [this government] do you stand for Israel’s deterrence? How do we look into the eyes of the enemy, “he said Sunday night.” What will they do in Iran and Gaza? What will they say in the government halls of Washington? “
Bennett is ideologically opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state and previously clashed with Netanyahu because he did not harder to come to Hamas, A militant group that controls the Gaza Strip.
Israel has called for the annexation of the occupied West Bank and advocated for expanding Jewish settlements, which most international communities consider illegal.
Bennett vowed in Sunday night’s speech that Likud will remain on the right wing of Netanyahu’s party. “This is not a government that will gift parts of Israeli territory,” he said, using a biblical reference to areas controlled by Israel but sought by the Palestinians to gain homeland.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu has stepped up efforts to remove a single member of the coalition, which if the Islamist party remained on that board would rule with a single-seat majority.
“There are also loyal Israelis in this left-wing opposition government that is being formed by Lapid,” one person said, referring to calls made by Netanyahu’s group to his opposition overnight. “They are aware of the dangers of Israel [that this government poses]”.
Netanyahu’s attacks on Bennett’s right-wing credentials have put pressure on Mansour Abbas Ra’am’s leader to revive his policy of supporting a Zionist government in exchange for material benefits to Israel’s Muslim minority community, including more money for police, hospitals and other citizens. amenities.
Abbas broke away from other Arab parties in Israel after four elections in April 2019, trying to position himself as a ruler. Although Bennett and Netanyahu have publicly boasted of right-wing policies that sideline Palestinian Israeli citizens, Abbas has remained silent.
“He has to think twice about what he will do,” said a member of parliament from the Arab bloc of parties that do not want a coalition party. “You replace Netanyahu with Bennett, and you think that’s good?”
If Bennett and Lapid manage to form a coalition, the Knesset will likely vote in the middle of next week to nominate the government. If they fail, Israel will have its fifth election in just over two years.
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