Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party publicly lashed out at Yamina and his leader, Naftali Bennett, on Tuesday, while the prime minister reportedly exploded religious Zionism and its leader, Bezalel Smotrich, after a suffered burning defeat in the Knesset.
Amid the continuing stalemate after the election, a Likud proposal regarding party representation in the main transitional organizing committee was voted on by the Knesset, despite the support of both Yamina and Religious Zionism.
The proposal was defeated when the Islamic Ra’am party, which Netanyahu hopes to support his government, voted with the opposition. Ra’am then backed a counter-proposal from the opposition that was accepted, giving the anti-Netanyahu bloc a majority in the committee.
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The defeat led to one of the prime minister’s leading collaborators publicly reflecting that it looked as if Likud would not continue to lead the country.
In a statement Tuesday afternoon, Likud accused Bennett of “rushing” to a left-wing government with Meretz and Labor backing the joint list, a predominantly Arab party. It cites the fact that Yamina stood against Likud on Monday night on a proposal to appoint deputy Knesset speakers, following the loss of the vote on the organizing committee (although he failed to mention that Yamina was the prime minister in full supported on the main issue).
Meanwhile, Kan News reported that Netanyahu Smotrich blamed Likud’s defeat, citing his repeated attacks on Raam amid coalition negotiations. “He has lifted us up,” Netanyahu said as he told senior officials in his Likud party.
Netanyahu and Smotrich still met Tuesday afternoon for talks, the contents of which were not immediately known.
Ra’am leader MK Mansour Abbas said after the vote on the organizing committee that he was driven away from Likud’s support due to “incitement” by the legislators of religious Zionism, Likud allies, who oppose the Arab Israeli parties in the Knesset regularly accused of being anti-Zionist, supporting Palestinian terrorism and hating Israel.
Abbas is also reportedly frustrated that Likud kept him out of the loop during negotiations with other parties over the committee and the coalition in general.
Netanyahu told Likud officials that “Smotrich’s provocations from Raam’s residents are causing Mansour Abbas to go the other way,” Kan said.
Smotrich continued his attacks on Ra’am on Tuesday, as well as on those who support the collaboration with the party, tweeting that the threat to the right-wing camp comes from anyone who irresponsibly strives to have terrorists who deny the right of the state to exist keeps the balance of power and becomes those who determine our future; anyone who wants to turn the Jewish state into a hostage, depends on extortion of protection money from his enemies. ‘
Netanyahu and Smotrich met later that day for continued talks.
Screenshot from video of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Knesset, 19 April 2021. (May)
Abbas told Kan on Tuesday: “We will not agree to be a punching bag or a target of incitement, bloodshed and false accusations.”
However, he stressed that the actions of his party the previous evening should not be seen as an indication of the general support for the opposition.
“We have not yet severed communication ties with anyone,” he said. ‘There is no tendency here; we will go with everyone who comes to us. ”
Abbas insisted that his talks with opposition leader MK Yair Lapid, who dropped his vote with the opposition, focused exclusively on the committee and did not deal with any potential coalition building to replace Netanyahu.
Others also attacked Smotrich on Tuesday for the defeat and for his refusal to cooperate with Ra’am, without which Netanyahu has little hope of forming a government. An unnamed senior source in the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism Party, which is affiliated with Netanyahu, told the Maariv daily that the leader of Religious Zionism behaved “like a child who did not receive the gift he received” did not expect and crushed the store. ”
The setback over the organizing committee came when Netanyahu sought to build a majority coalition after the unconvincing election last month. To reach a majority of 61 seats in the Knesset, the Netanyahu-led bloc must include both Religious Zionism and the Yamina party led by MK Naftali Bennett, as well as outside support from Raam’s four legislators.
Smotrich ruled out sitting in a coalition based on even Ra’am’s support.
Netanyahu faces the Lapid-led ‘change bloc’ of parties from right, left and center. Nor will this bloc be able to form a government without Yamina and Ra’am.
Neither party has committed to it.
Orit Farkash-Hacohen. (Yanai Yechiel)
Senior Yamina officials told Kan on Tuesday that they had received messages from Netanyahu’s negotiating team that the prime minister was ready to give up his efforts to form a government, saying Likud was not hopeful of finding a solution to Smotrich’s objections to Ra’am or to its management. to turn individual legislators away from the change bloc, or to persuade New Hope leader Gideon Sa’ar to bring his party into a coalition that would keep the prime minister in power.
Those close to Netanyahu are said to be divided over continued efforts to build coalitions or to formally return the mandate to President Reuven Rivlin early. Netanyahu has two more weeks to try to complete the task.
According to Kan, some Netanyahu advisers believe that the return of the mandate could catch the anti-Netanyahu bloc off guard, giving it less time to form a coalition.
Tourism Minister Orit Farkash-Hacohen of the Blue and White Party attacked Bennett on Tuesday for continuing to play both sides, telling Channel 12 News that Bennett and Yamina were no longer on the fence. can not stay.
After the vote, Netanyahu’s allies are increasingly considering the possibility that he will not form the next government, while Shas MK Yinon Azulay told Radio 103FM that the committee vote “proves that it is not yet certain that we will be in government. . “
MK Miki Zohar, chairperson of the Organizing Committee, tweeted from the Likud party whip that the party has not given up yet, writing that ‘we continue to fight for our path and do not give in so easily.
“Despite all the difficulties, I will continue to do everything possible to assist Likud and the Prime Minister with our partners to succeed in the coming battles in the Knesset,” he wrote.
Screenshot from video of Likud MK Miki Zohar chairing a meeting of the Knesset Organizing Committee, 19 April 2021. (Knesset Channel)
The previous evening, when he was chairing the inaugural meeting of the organizing committee, Zohar said that after the loss in the plenary vote, the Likud party understood that Netanyahu was not going to form a government and that the party road is to the opposition.
If Netanyahu does not form a government, Rivlin will have to instruct a second candidate or return the mandate to the Knesset to elect a legislature directly to do the job.
The opposition’s Lapid also faces significant challenges to form a majority, as the anti-Netanyahu bloc includes parties that are diametrically opposed in their worldview on important issues.
If no bloc were to form a government, Israel would go to its fifth election within three years, with the four previous elections failing to break the political loggam.
MK leader Moshe Gafni’s leader told Kan on Tuesday that his party would stay with Netanyahu no matter what happens, even if it means he wants to act in the opposition.
“Our position is unequivocal and it will not change depending on the vote,” Gafni said.