Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid and Yamina chairman Naftali Bennett have reportedly reached a “breakthrough” in their talks on forming a joint government to remove Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from power. Canadian public broadcaster reported Sunday night.
According to multiple reports from Hebrew media reports, Lapid agreed to allow Bennett to first serve as prime minister, in a possible power-sharing agreement between them, during talks late Saturday night.
The meeting, the first between the two party leaders since the March 23 national election, followed Bennett’s ouster with Netanyahu on Friday.
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According to Kan, Lapid said following the meeting that there is an important development in the talks with Bennett and I estimate that we will be able to form a coalition with him. ‘
Lapid reportedly said Bennett did not trust Netanyahu’s promises, and that ‘the ultra-Orthodox will join [our coalition] immediately after it is formed. Ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism and the Shas parties are loyal allies of Netanyahu and have clashed with Lapid over his stance on the military concept.
The proposed power-sharing government between Lapid and Bennett would be slim, with a maximum of 18 ministers: nine for right-wing Bennett, centrist Blue and White’s Benny Gantz and right-wing New Hope’s Gideon Sa’ar on one side, and nine for Lapid and others in the center-left, Channel 12 News reported.
According to Kan, Bennett “almost” agreed to the proposal.
Yamina’s leader Naftali Bennett and his wife Gilat, right, arrive at a polling station in Raanana on March 23, 2021. (Gili Yaari / Flash90)
However, Channel 12 said Bennett has yet to decide whether he wants to be prime minister in such a government, or whether to support Netanyahu and probably go to a fifth election, as the Likud leader apparently has no way of forming a coalition. .
Bennett refrains from Netanyahu or the prime minister’s rivals after the unconvincing election, Israel’s fourth in two years, and places him as a potential king after his right-wing Yamina party elected seven seats.
Both blocs apparently need the support of Yamina and the Islamic Ra’am party to secure a majority. Ra’am, the smallest party in the incoming Knesset with four seats, said after a Saturday party meeting that he had not decided on who to stand for prime minister.
According to a separate report on Channel 12, referring to allies of the Yamina chief, Bennett would prefer a full-fledged right-wing government led by Netanyahu, but that does not currently appear possible. His second choice would be a right-wing government led by Netanyahu with outside support from the Islamic Arab Framework Party, but that was ruled out by Bezalel Smotrich of Religious Zionism. His third choice would be a partnership with Lapid and the center-left, in which Bennett himself serves as prime minister. According to the report, Bennett elected a government with Lapid over a fifth election.
A Channel 13 report says a decision by Bennett to agree a deal with Lapid could lead most center-left parties to recommend Bennett as prime minister when they meet with President Reuven Rivlin on Monday to discuss a nominate candidate to form a governing coalition. .
The parties elected to the Knesset will meet with Rivlin on Monday to give their recommendations to the prime minister. Rivlin is expected to announce on Wednesday which candidate will be given the mandate to try to form a government.
In addition to Yamina and Ra’am, Sa’ar’s New Hope has not yet announced which candidate he will endorse on Monday, but has excluded Netanyahu and Lapid.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) attends Mimouna’s Jewish Moroccan celebration at Osnat Mark (R)’s Ma’ale Adumim House on April 3, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel / Flash90)
The anti-Netanyahu bloc of Yesh Atid (17 seats), Blue and White (8), Labor (7), Yisrael Beytenu (7), Joint List (6), Meretz (6) and New Hope (6) has 57 won from the Knesset’s total of 120 seats, and needed all four of Raam’s legislators to support his coalition to have a majority in the Knesset, or the support of right-wing Yamina.
The pro-Netanyahu bloc of Likud (30), Shas (9), UTJ (7) and Religious Zionism (6) will need the support of Yamina. But it will give only 59 seats in total, unless it depends on the Islamic Frame for support.
Smotrich pleads with Bennett; Sa’ar excludes Netanyahu support
In a press conference Sunday night, Smotrich of Religious Zionism urged Bennett to recommend Netanyahu to form the next government when he meets with Rivlin.
He warned that “any recommendation you make tomorrow, not to Netanyahu, will take us by leaps and bounds to a left-wing government.”
Smotrich calls Bennett ‘my very real friend’ and says he’s afraid the bear hug on the left will blind you.
‘If you recommend yourself [for prime minister] you yourself will bring about the downfall of a right-wing government and the formation of a left-wing government, ‘said the hard-right leader of religious Zionism about the possibility that Bennett would try to form the coalition.
Head of Religious Zionism, MK Bezalel Smotrich, in Modiin, 23 March 2021. (Sraya Diamant / Flash90)
On a separate live event, Sa’ar – a former Likud minister who left the party to form New Hope – ruled out signing Netanyahu as prime minister.
“I said clearly during the election that whoever wants Netanyahu to stay, not to vote for me … I said it very clearly, every day, all day … I repeat it: we will not join a government or under the leadership of Netanyahu, “he said. Sa’ar, whose party won six seats.
The New Hope leader said he wanted to form a government of change that would reunite our people. We want a government that brings back values of truth-telling, honesty and integrity … Not a government that is addicted to the tapestry of interests from Netanyahu’s trial. ‘
From left to right: Yair Lapid (Miriam Alster / Flash90) Yesh Atid party leader; Yamina party leader, Naftali Bennett; and Gideon Sa’ar, New Hope Party Leader (Yonatan Sindel / Flash90)
Channel 12 reported on Saturday that Rivlin is likely to ask party leaders with whom they will refuse to sit in a coalition. Sixty-seven lawmakers will not refuse to be with Bennett, 66 for Lapid and 63 for Netanyahu, the network said, although it is unclear what Rivlin would decide to do with such information.
President Reuven Rivlin speaks during a ceremony to receive the official results of the election in the Presidential Residence in Jerusalem on March 31, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel / Flash90)
Channel 13 said Netanyahu told Bennett during their Friday meeting that if Yamina supported him as prime minister, he would receive 59 recommendations, which would be enough to secure Rivlin’s appointment, as he claims Sa’ar of the New Hope party will remember, and possibly Frame too.
It is also reported that Netanyahu Bennett offered a rotation agreement to become prime minister after a year or 18 months, and that Yamina’s faction would be included in Netanyahu’s Likud party, Channel 12 reported. Likud denied that Netanyahu offered Bennett a rotation deal.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.