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Israeli opposition leaders are locked in frantic last-minute negotiations to nail down a minority government that could end the 12-year reign of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister of the Jewish state.
He unlikely coalition, which straddles 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 cross the 61-seat threshold and form a government.
The self-proclaimed “government of change” has until Wednesday to convince President Reuven Rivlin that they can win a vote in parliament and replace Israel’s longest-serving prime minister.
Netanyahu could be replaced by Naftali Bennett, a former defense minister whose party has only six seats after the departure of a member who would not support the coalition. Bennett could hold a rotating presidency with Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid, a former television presenter, who brought the coalition together for weeks of back-to-back negotiations.
Bennett, 49, who was Netanyahu’s chief of staff, spent Sunday night with Lapid assigning possible cabinet portfolios as right-wing protesters gathered around the homes of their leaders Yamina and others.
Ayelet Shaked, Bennett’s political partner and possible justice minister, received additional police protection after threats against his right, which Netanyahu has spurred in street protests calling Yamina traitors to the Zionist cause.
The constant threat of violence against Netanyahu’s rivals was one of the main reasons for his removal as prime minister, Lapid said on Tuesday. He added that he, Bennett, Shaked, the attorney general and prosecutors prosecuting Netanyahu for corruption, as well as several journalists, were among those living under police protection.
“We have all been threatened with violence and murder,” Lapid said at an opposition meeting, where he acknowledged that the coalition faced “many obstacles.” If he was successful, Lapid continued, then “it will be calmer, the ministers will go to work without incitement [hatred], without lying, without trying to instill fear all the time ”.
Netanyahu called the opposition alliance a “fraud of the century” and said it would make Israel weaker.
“He will [this government] to do for Israel’s deterrence? How will we look into the eyes of our enemies, “he said Sunday night.” What will they do in Iran and Gaza? What will they say in the halls of the Washington government? “
Bennett ideologically opposes the creation of a Palestinian state and previously clashed with Netanyahu for not going down harder against Hamas, the militant group that controls the Gaza Strip.
He has pushed for Israel to annex large areas of the occupied West Bank and has advocated for the expansion of Jewish settlements, considered illegal by most of the international community.
Bennett vowed to stay to the right of the Likud, Netanyahu’s party, in a speech Sunday night. “This is not a government that will give away parts of the land of Israel,” he said, using a biblical reference to areas that Israel controls, but Palestinians are looking for a homeland.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu has stepped up efforts to remove a single member of the coalition, which would rule with a majority of one seat if the Islamist party remained on board.
“There are loyal Israelis even in this left-wing opposition government that Lapid is creating,” said one person who reported on the night’s calls to Netanyahu’s team to his opposition. “They are being made aware of the dangers for Israel [that this government poses]”.
Netanyahu’s attacks on Bennett’s right-wing credentials have pressured Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas to reconsider his stated policy of supporting a Zionist government in exchange for material benefits to Israel’s Muslim minority community. , including more money for police, a hospital and other civilians. amenities.
Abbas split from Israel’s other Arab parties in an attempt to position himself as king after four blocked elections since April 2019. Although both Bennett and Netanyahu have publicly boasted of right-wing policies that Palestinian citizens of Israel were left out, Abbas has remained silent.
“He has to think twice about what he is about to do,” said a member of parliament from a rival Arab bloc of parties, which does not want to be part of the coalition. “Replace Netanyahu with Bennett, and do you think he’s good?”
If Bennett and Lapid manage to form a coalition, the Knesset will likely vote in the middle of next week to choose a government. Should it fail, Israel faces its fifth election in just over two years.
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