‘Eternal’ Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu May Replace | Abroad

Opposition leader Yair Lapid received support on Sunday from Naftali Bennett, a 49-year-old minister and former party member of Netanyahu. Bennett leads a right-wing party league and Lapid leads the Yesh Atid (Future Party) center party. Lapid has already won support from centre-left parties.

Bennett and Lapid would alternate the premiership. Prime Minister Netanyahu of the right-wing party Likud has long been the prime minister and has formed a series of coalitions, especially with highly orthodox Jewish parties. He was prime minister from 1996 to 1999 and has been since 2009. No Israeli prime minister has been at the helm for that long.

Israel has held four elections in the past two years and Israelis are legally required to go back to the polls if no governing coalition is formed by Thursday. The last ballot was March 23. Lapid’s reformist Future Party then became the country’s second-largest party. But in the fragmented politics that represents only seventeen of the 120 seats in parliament.

But Lapid has already made deals with the Labor Party, the left-liberal Meretz and the nationalist Yisrael Beitenu (Israel Our Home). He hopes to keep a minority government afloat with the support of a series of parties. He also thinks that the ten Arab parliamentarians would be prepared to provide support under certain conditions. According to Israeli media, a coalition agreement would be ready on Monday and Israel can then continue with a new fragile coalition before the deadline (23:00 Dutch time on Wednesday).

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