At first there was another stalemate in Israel after the fourth election in two years. No political camp managed to win a Knesset majority. And PM Benjamin Netanyahu remained ready to do anything to … stay in power and avoid ending up in prison. However, this time, the opposition leaders used their brains and may end the era of the longest serving prime minister in the history of Israel.
Netanyahu is a political survivor. He has been in power for twelve long years. Nevertheless, he is most likely corrupt and should have been forced out of office a long time ago.
Yesterday, thirty-five minutes before the midnight deadline (!), Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid informed the Israeli President Reuven Rivlin that he had managed to form a coalition government. However, “Bibi” is not yet dead politically. The Lapid government still needs to be confirmed by the Knesset.
In the 120-seat parliament, the eight Knesset parties who signed the political declaration to form a new government control together 61 seats: Lapid’s Yesh Atid 17 seats, Benny Gantz’s Blue and White 8, Yisrael Beytenu 7, Labor 7, Naftali Bennet’s Yamina 6 (one of it’s 7 MKs is not ready for the new coalition), New Hope 6, Meretz 6 and Ra’am 4.
Ra’am would be the first Arab party ever to formally join an Israeli government. Four of the six MKs of the Joint List of mainly Arab parties have announced that they will oppose the new government. However, the two others have not yet made an official announcement yet, which gives Lapid and Bennett the hope of another two possible votes in support.
Anyway, with Ra’am in the government, this would make the Naftali Bennett/Yair Lapid cabinet a true unity government. With Yisrael Beytenu, Naftali Bennett’s Yamina and New Hope, the new coalition would comprise three right-wing parties. Yesh Atid and Blue and White are situated in the political center. Labor and Meretz represent the left, and Ra’am the Arab minority.
What holds this unlikely coalition together is the will to end the political career of Benjamin Netanyahu who, in recent years, has hijacked Israeli politics in an unhealthy way.
With 17 seats, Yesh Atid represents by far the largest Knesset party in this new possible coalition government. Nevertheless, Yair Lapid is ready to let the far-right Yamina leader Naftali Bennett take over first the role of prime minister.
One of Bennett’s 7 MKs is against the new coalition. The support of some others is said to remain shaky. In other words, until the Knesset formally approves the new government, Benjamin Netanyahu is not yet politically dead. He risks to end up in jail and, therefore, will do whatever it takes to prevent the formation of a new coalition government which, on paper, holds the closest of possible majority’s (61:59).
Let’s not forget that, on June 2, Israel’s parliament elected a new head of state: Isaac Herzog will become Israel’s eleventh president. He won the approval of 87 out of the 120 Members of Knesset.
Suggested literature: Anshel Pfeffer: Bibi. The Turbulent Life and Times of Benjamin Netanyahu. 2018, 256 pages. Order the book (more than a biography) from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.fr, Amazon.de.
Article added on June 3, 2021 at 07:30 German time. Minor grammatical corrections at 15:10.
