Middle East Desk
Report
TEL AVIV: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s opponents pushed on Thursday for a quick vote to end his record-setting rule, racing to head off what is expected to be a frantic effort by the premier and his allies to derail the newly announced coalition.
The new phase of political warfare began just hours after opposition leader Yair Lapid and his main coalition partner Naftali Bennett – an ideological odd couple – declared late on Wednesday night they reached a deal to form a new government.
The announcement triggered a complex process likely to stretch over the next week, giving Netanyahu time to try to pressure coalition members ideologically aligned with him to quit the group.
With the threat of possible jail time hanging over him in his ongoing trial on corruption charges, the 71-year-old is unlikely to allow his record 12 straight years to end without a messy fight, analysts warned.
On Thursday, the master political operator was already on Twitter seeking to play on any last-minute misgivings among right-wing lawmakers about allying with the left against him.
“All lawmakers who were elected with votes from the right must oppose this dangerous left-wing government,” Netanyahu said. Should last-minute defections scupper the “change” alliance, Israel would likely have to hold yet another election, the fifth in just over two years.
“Opening the champagne right now is a bit hasty,” said Tamar Hermann, a political scientist at the Israel Democracy Institute.
The question is whether the coalition of 61 votes would hold together through a vote of the 120-member Knesset, and who would preside over that vote?
Netanyahu has accused the former allies who joined the incoming coalition of betraying right-wing values. His supporters have demonstrated and launched vicious social media campaigns, repeating the message Netanyahu has been sending over the past week as the new coalition coalesced.
One factor working in Netanyahu’s favour: the parliament speaker is an ally who could use his position to delay the vote and give Netanyahu more time to sabotage the coalition.
The prime minister and his allies called a meeting later Thursday to plot their next steps, and it was unclear whether his opponents could name a new parliament speaker to preside over a Knesset vote required to confirm the new government.
If it goes through, Lapid and a diverse array of partners that span the Israeli political spectrum will end Netanyahu’s record-setting, divisive 12-year rule.
Under the agreement, Lapid and Bennett will split the job of prime minister in a rotation. Bennett, a former ally of Netanyahu, is to serve the first two years, while Lapid is to serve the final two years, though it is far from certain their fragile coalition will last that long.
The historic deal also includes the small United Arab List, which would make it the first party of Palestinian citizens of Israel ever to be part of a governing coalition in Israel.
United Arab List’s leader Mansour Abbas, 47, has cast aside differences with prime minister-hopeful Bennett, an advocate of annexing most of the occupied West Bank.
