Countdown to a Netanyahu-less government begins
Israel's acting prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is persisting in his efforts to derail the coalition government led by Nafatali Bennet and Yair Lapid, which would put an end to 12 years of Netanyahu's leadership. The prime minister, with little time to achieve his goal, has opted to pressure the more right-wing members of the coalition to either vote against the new government or leave the coalition. For now, despite Netanyahu's efforts, the self-styled "Government of Change" seems to be consolidating.
The next step to shore up this new government is for Yair Lapid to notify Parliament (Knesset) that he has been able to reach a coalition agreement, and for the Speaker of the Knesset to set a date for a confidence vote, which may be delayed until 14 June. The Speaker of the Knesset, Yariv Levin, a member of Likud (Benjamin Netanyahu's party), once the possible formation of the government has been notified, has 7 days to submit the new government to a vote of confidence; a period that is expected to be delayed as long as possible in order to undermine the fragile coalition agreement.
The new government of change has a very slim majority, 61 out of 120 seats in the Knesset, and a change of mind by any member of the new coalition could doom its chances of being approved in Parliament. That is why Benett and Lapid, in their attempt to speed up the process and bring forward the confidence vote in the Knesset, tried to replace the speaker with someone more sympathetic, but in the end they failed to gather the necessary votes.
For its part, in the absence of votes to replace the Knesset speaker, the Arab-majority Joint List, which is not part of the coalition, moved to shore up this effort by adding its own six votes to the bid. But the bloc's leaders, Yamina and Yesh Atid, quickly distanced themselves from the Joint List's support, saying they had not sought it. Despite the fact that the Islamist Raam party is part of the new coalition, the Joint List is seen as less acceptable to many right-wing members of the change bloc.
With the vote delayed as long as possible, both Bennet and Lapid are continuing their efforts to shore up their support. Yamina chief Naftali Bennet, who will be prime minister in a rotation agreement with Lapid, has hosted members of his party at his home to shore up the emerging 'coalition of change' with the centre and the left.
Benjamin Netanyahu, for his part, is not relenting in his policy of maximum pressure, and continues to urge right-wing members of the emerging coalition to pull out before a vote can be taken. His ally, Likud minister Tzachi Hanegbi, said he would "fight to the end" to prevent it if possible. There have also been several demonstrations around the houses of mainly Yamina members against the formation of this new government of change.
Likewise, and with the intention of putting even more pressure on the new government, the Speaker of the Knesset, Yariv Levin, has demanded the publication of the coalition agreement, although by law they are not obliged to do so until 24 hours before the vote of confidence in the Knesset. "It cannot be that the coalition agreements are hidden from the Knesset and the public," Levin said. In response to this demand, the Yesh Atid and Yamina parties issued a joint statement saying that the coalition agreements would be presented in a transparent manner. They called on Levin to convene the Knesset plenum and "allow the formation of a functioning unity government that will lead us out of chaos".
Amid so much political chaos, and 10 days before the vote to form a new government to unseat the current prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, anything can happen. The majority is so slim that a simple change of opinion at the last minute could thwart the formation of the coalition. In this case, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin would offer the role of forming the government to any Knesset member who is able to muster a majority of seats, which would give Netanyahu another chance.
