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Israel’s opposition parties have joined together to try to form a minority government that could oust the country’s longest-serving prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and end the country’s fifth election in two years.
The self-proclaimed “government of change” must now present its plans to President Reuven Rivlin. If the proposal is approved, the 120-seat Knesset will have to vote on it, a process that will take at least a week to organize.
With 57 seats, the minority government will need the support of the Islamist party Ra’am, which has four seats, to pass the 61-seat threshold to form a government.
If Netanyahu can convince at least one member of the right-wing parties of the coalition planned to defect, he could escape the small majority pointed out by his opponents.
If the opposition is successful, the government will initially be led by Netanyahu’s only ally, Naftali Bennett, who leads the pro-settlement right-wing party, Yamina. The party has only six seats in the Knesset after losing the support of a member who refused to join the new coalition.
He would share a rotating presidency with Yair Lapid, a former TV presenter and leader of centrist Yesh Atid, who has 17 seats. The rest of the coalition is made up of a constellation of parties stretching from the far left Meretz to the right New Hope.
“Four elections have already damaged the state; the political crisis in Israel is unprecedented in the world,” Bennett said in an early-morning speech Sunday night. “I will work with all my might to form a government with my friend Yair Lapid.”
But the coalition depends on the support of Mansour Abbas, who leads Ra’am. In exchange for its support, the party seeks protections for conservative Muslim lifestyles and funding for more police, hospitals and civic resources for Arab-dominated cities in northern Israel.
In the last twenty-five months, Israel has held four elections that ended in a stalemate, leading to a short-lived coalition that Netanyahu himself ended in December 2020, as he launched the The world’s fastest coronavirus vaccination program in the hopes that it would help you achieve the election victory. But the March polls were inconclusive.
Lapid and Bennet talks aimed at forming a new administration were abandoned earlier this month following the outbreak of the eleven-day conflict between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group. The violence worsened a wave of community conflicts between Arabs and Jews living in Israel, caused serious unrest in the occupied West Bank and caused nearly 250 lives in the Gaza Strip.
If successful in forming a government, the new coalition will end the reign of Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, who has been at the helm of the Jewish state since 2009, after a three-year term in office. nineties.
Netanyahu would find himself outraged just as his trial for bribery, fraud and breach of trust took hold in the Jerusalem district court. He has dismissed the charges as a politically motivated witch hunt, aimed at overthrowing his presidency.
As prime minister, Netanyahu has attacked courts, attorneys general and police investigators, accusing them of bias. As an opposition leader, his influence would be much more extinguished.
Bennett and Lapid will fight to hold together an ideologically disharmonious coalition of right-wing, centrist and left-wing factions that depend on the support of an Arab party. Bennett underlined his right-wing credentials in his speech, describing himself as the sole leader of a council of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, considered illegal by the international community.
“This is not a government that will return parts of the land of Israel. He will be able to embark on the war if necessary, “he said.
Ra’am split from Israel’s other Arab parties, which have once backed a minority government, offering their support to any coalition that would take their demands seriously, trying to influence the country’s blockade policy.
Netanyahu on Sunday offered Bennett and another former ally, Gideon Sa’ar, who leads a pro-independence faction of ex-Likud leaders, a three-way rotating presidency in an attempt to form his own government.
Sa’ar would have served 15 months at the head of the Jewish state, Netanyahu two years and Bennett the rest of the five-year term. However, Sa’ar had campaigned with the promise of ousting Netanyahu and rejected the offer of an alliance that would keep him in power.
“We are at a fateful time for the security, character and future of Israel, when you set aside any personal considerations and take powerful and even unprecedented steps,” Netanyahu said before the proposal was rejected. .
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