After Benjamin Netanyahu failed to assemble a governing coalition by the deadline last Tuesday, President Reuven Rivlin passed the mandate to Yair Lapid, the leader of the Knesset’s second largest party. Lapid, a politician of the center-left, has now joined forces with Naftali Bennet, of the right-wing Yamina, to put together a seven- or eight-party coalition ranging from the far-left Meretz to the secular right Yisrael Beytenu. As of Sunday night, the two seem to have gained the support of the conservative Islamic party Ra’am. But, explains Haviv Rettig Gur, it’s still not clear if they will succeed:
Yamina’s Amiḥai Chikli declared last week he wouldn’t support such a coalition. Remove Chikli and add the four-seat Ra’am to the mix and you reach precisely 61 [seats], with not a vote to spare. It’s a terribly difficult puzzle to piece together. Each new part Lapid or Bennett might try to add seems to compromise another.
Some in [the center-right] New Hope and Yamina are working hard to bring ḥaredi parties on board in a bid to stabilize the government and, no less important for Bennett and New Hope’s Gideon Sa’ar, strengthen its conservative wing. But ḥaredi support (Shas’s nine seats and/or United Torah Judaism’s seven) would almost certainly mean the loss of Yisrael Beytenu’s seven and likely also progressive Meretz’s six.
The Arab Joint List quietly suggested to Lapid last week to drop right-wing Bennett (six seats without Chikli) . . . in exchange for the support of their six seats. But without Bennett, Lapid loses Sa’ar’s six seats as well. And therein lies the rub. It’s not at all clear that what Bennett and Lapid are trying to do is actually possible. Nothing quite like it has ever been done in Israeli politics.
Read more on Times of Israel: https://www.timesofisrael.com/lapid-bennett-know-they-must-form-a-government-quickly-or-not-at-all/