Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The seat of leadership in Israel is being contested. Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid is starting to move to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Reported by Reuters, Lapid officially told the President Israel Reuven Rivlin has reached an agreement with political allies to form a new government.
“I am honored to inform you that I have succeeded in forming a government,” Lapid said via email to Rivlin at midnight Wednesday (2/6/2021). Meanwhile, Rivlin is said to have congratulated Lapid over the phone.
Lapid’s main partner is nationalist Naftali Bennett, who will serve as the first prime minister after the new government is formed. Lapid, a former TV presenter and finance minister, will take over after about two years.
Their coalition government will consist of small and medium-sized parties from across the political spectrum. This includes for the first time in Israel’s history a party representing Israel’s 21% Arab minority, the United Arab List.
The group also includes Bennett’s Yamina, Blue and White led by Secretary of Defense Benny Gantz. There are also the left-wing Meretz and Labor parties, the nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party of former defense minister Avigdor Lieberman, and New Hope, the far-right party led by former education minister Gideon Saar, which split from Netanyahu’s Likud.
The new government, which will lead a narrow majority in parliament, is expected to be sworn in in about 10-12 days from now. This leaves little room for the Netanyahu camp to try and overturn it by turning lawmakers over to their side and voting against it.
Netanyahu, who has not yet responded to Lapid’s announcement, holds 30 seats in the 120-member Knesset. This is almost double that of Lapid’s Yesh Atid party, and he is aligned with at least three other religious and nationalist parties.
During his 12 years in office, Israel’s longest-serving leader has been a polarizing figure at home and abroad.
Netanyahu sought to discredit the Bennett-Lapid alliance, saying it would jeopardize Israel’s security. This is a reference to efforts to curb Iran’s nuclear program and manage the always tense Palestinian relationship.
Lapid was given the task of forming a governing coalition after the far-right Netanyahu failed to do so following the March 23 election. He campaigned under a promise to “restore sanity” to Israel, focusing on Netanyahu’s corruption trial on charges he denies.
“This government will work for all Israelis, those who voted for it and those who did not. The government will respect its opponents and do all it can to unite and connect all sections of Israeli society,” Lapid said on Twitter.
The new government, if sworn in, will face considerable diplomatic, security and economic challenges: Iran, a near-dead peace process with the Palestinians, a war crimes investigation by the International Criminal Court, and economic recovery after the coronavirus pandemic.
A source involved in the coalition talks said the proposed new government would try to maintain consensus by avoiding hot ideological issues. For example, the issue of annexing or handing over the West Bank to Palestine.
Bennett said that both sides would have to compromise on those ideological issues to get the country back on track, with government debt standing at 72.4% in 2020, up from 60% in 2019 and a deficit surging to 11.6% in 2020. from 3.7 percent in 2019.
The end of Netanyahu’s term could bring a reprieve from unprecedented domestic political turmoil. Israel has held four elections in two years, but major changes in Israel’s foreign policy are still very small.
(dru)
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