In Israel, there are indications of a government coalition that excludes longtime Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A few days before opposition leader Yair Lapid’s deadline to form a government, Netanyahu’s opponents were in the final negotiations on Sunday. The liberal Lapid offered the hard-line nationalist Naftali Bennett of the Yamina party a partnership with rotating prime ministers.
In this alliance, described by the Israeli press as a bloc for change, the 49-year-old Bennett is said to be the first to take over as prime minister. The increasingly isolated Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption, called on former Defense Minister Bennett and former Likud politician Gideon Saar on Sunday on Twitter to start conversations with him “immediately” about the three-man head of government change model. Otherwise, Israel threatens a dangerous “left” coalition.
Sarr from the New Hope Party responded to the request of his former friend in his party on Twitter with the phrase: “Our position and our commitment was and is: to replace the Netanyahu government.” The 71-year-old Netanyahu came to power for the first time in three years in 1996 and has served as prime minister since 2009. But due to the corruption charge, more and more Israeli party leaders regard him as unsustainable at the helm of the country’s government.
The so-called Coalition for Change Lapid will be on the blue and white list of Netanyahu’s former cabinet partner, Benny Gantz. In addition, there will be the secular nationalist Israel Beitenu (Our Home in Israel) party led by former Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman as well as the Labor Party and the left-wing Meretz party. Such a government should also count on the support of Israeli Arabs, who hold a positive view of the 57-year-old former TV journalist Lapid, but not a would-be Prime Minister Bennett.
Despite the sometimes conflicting positions of the individual partners, political expert Gail Talcher of the Hebrew University of Israel considered it “closer than ever” to such an alliance. Tilshire said it could still be announced on Sunday or Monday.
The liberal Lapid party, Yesh Atid (There is a future) was the second largest party in the March elections, and the fourth in two years. Netanyahu’s Likud was the strongest party, with 30 of the 120 seats in Parliament, but it has clearly lost an absolute majority of 61 seats. The attempt to form a government failed, and President Reuven Rivlin asked Lapid to form a government. The deadline ends on Wednesday evening.
In fact, Netanyahu sought to form an alliance with the religious nationalist Bennett Gamina party and the far-right religious Zionism party. In order to obtain the necessary 61 seats for a majority in the Knesset, he also wanted to include the conservative Islamist party, Raem. The party of religious Zionism categorically ruled out any cooperation with the Arabs of Israel.
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