Named senior Likud party officials told Kan News on Monday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had given up the possibility of persuading the far-right Party Religious Zionism to join a coalition led by Islamic Ra’am in any way. party supported.
According to the report, Netanyahu is now convinced that the party’s chairman, Bezalel Smotrich, does not intend to change his mind and agrees to join a government that will even support Ra’am outside. have, and the prime minister would rather focus his attention on persuading. New Hope’s Gideon Sa’ar to join his government.
A central plan of Sa’ar’s election campaign was to form a right-wing government, but not under Netanyahu. Sa’ar has repeatedly promised since the election that he will not join Netanyahu.
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Religious Zionism has certainly ruled out any kind of partnership with Ra’am, which would likely condemn Netanyahu’s prospects of forming a coalition. A Sunday report said Smotrich had ordered a poll to determine whether his supporters would support a right-wing government that relied on party support.
Frame party leader Mansour Abbas at the party’s headquarters in Tamra on election night, 23 March 2021. (Flash90)
According to the poll’s findings, more than 50 percent of supporters of Religious Zionism say they prefer such a coalition over a fifth consecutive election, Walla News reports.
The question was allegedly set out in an internal survey under a series of questions about the election and coalition negotiations. Religious Zionism has denied the report, citing no sources.
Several Ra’am officials have in recent weeks also ruled out collaborating with Religious Zionism, home to the far right.
Kan also reported that Netanyahu’s associates say Yamina’s leader Naftali Bennett is deliberately obstructing negotiations so he can avoid a coalition with Likud.
Channel 12 News reported on Friday that Bennett has so far agreed to support the premiership with Netanyahu in a government supported by Ra’am, but only if Smotrich is on board. However, the network said Likud sources denied Yamina’s allegation that Netanyahu made Bennett such an offer.
Yamina’s leader Naftali Bennett arrives at Jerusalem’s Prime Minister’s residence on 8 April 2021 for coalition talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
It is also alleged that Netanyahu, despite all the forces, believes that Bennett is just walking with him and that he has already decided to join forces with opposition leader Yair Lapid.
Meanwhile, Kan said on Monday that a finance adviser to Finance Minister Israel Katz had suggested in an internal WhatsApp group that Netanyahu pass on the mandate to form a government to Katz, as it was “the most correct and realistic”. is. [path] for a full right-wing government. ”
Amnon Ben Ami also suggested that Knesset members in return elect Netanyahu as president in the coming weeks, with expanded powers giving him full authority over foreign affairs, the report said.
Katz said in response to the report that he had no knowledge of the proposal, but that if it was true, he would take action against his adviser and might even suspend him.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, listens to the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, now Minister of Finance, Israel Katz, during the weekly cabinet meeting at his office in Jerusalem, October 27, 2019. (Gali Tibbon / Pool Photo via AP)
The Walla news website reported on Saturday that Netanyahu fears that senior Likud lawmakers could rebel and try to form a government led by someone else if he does not succeed himself.
The right-wing New Hope did not exclude Likud as a party, only Netanyahu, which gives rise to scenarios in which Netanyahu relinquishes power and becomes president or alternative prime minister, enabling Sa’ar’s party to join and a to form a right-wing majority. coalition led by another Likud member.
President Reuven Rivlin last week instructed Netanyahu to form a government, after the prime minister received more recommendations than any other party legislator who won representation in the Knesset during the March 23 vote.
Netanyahu, with 52 recommendations, however, still did not receive a majority support in the Knesset with 120 seats, and neither he nor the group of parties opposed to his continued government had a clear path to a governing coalition, leading to fear of a fifth. rapid fire election.
To reach a majority, Netanyahu needs the active or outside support of the right-wing Yamina, the Islamic Framework, and Religious Zionism.
Several – and mostly unlikely – scenarios are being driven about how to reach the magic number of 61, including reliance on outside Ra’am, despite opposition from right-wing lawmakers; try to recruit “defectors” from other parties; and trying to get Sa’ar’s New Hope party to join such a coalition.
Gideon Sa’ar, head of the New Hope political party, speaks at a Channel 12 news conference in Jerusalem on March 7, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel / Flash90)
If Netanyahu fails to form a government within 28 days, the president can order the attempt to a second person (for another period of 28 days and a possible additional 14), or the mandate to the Knesset returns and the legislature gives 21 days to agree on a candidate supported by 61 MKs.
If the president appoints a second person and the person does not form a coalition, the mandate automatically returns to the Knesset for a period of 21 days. During that time, any MK may be eligible to form a government.
Rivlin has implied that he may not give the mandate to a second candidate if Netanyahu fails, but will immediately send it back to the Knesset.
At the end of the 21-day period, if 61 MKs have not agreed on a candidate, the new Knesset will automatically go out and the country will go to another election, which is the fifth in less than three years.
