(Jerusalem) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is on trial for “corruption” in a series of cases, failed Wednesday to form a government on time, paving the way for his opponents who seek to oust him from power.
On Monday, Israeli channels competed in scenarios, sometimes the most interesting, allowing Mr Netanyahu (right-wing) Likud to remain in power by mobilizing all right-wing forces, even the Islamists, to achieve a parliamentary majority.
Netanyahu won 30 of the 120 seats in the Knesset in the legislative elections held on March 23 – the fourth in less than two years in Israel – Netanyahu received a mandate from President Reuven Rivlin last month to form a government.
But after weeks of intrigue, debates in corridors, and sometimes contradictory rumors, the most enduring prime minister in Israeli history has failed to muster a majority of 61 MPs to form a government.
“Shortly before midnight, Mr. Netanyahu informed the presidency that he was unable to form a government and thus returned the mandate to the president,” President Rivlin’s office said in a brief statement.
‘Historic opportunity’
So what happens next? According to his services, the Israeli president should contact the elected officials in the Knesset early Wednesday morning to discuss the procedures to be followed, thus trying to put an end to this seemingly “endless history” series.
Yasser Labeed Al-Wusta, a former journalist and Star TV host, who has led Yesh Atid (“There is a future”) training for nearly ten years, said he is ready to assign him the task of forming a government.
It is time to form a new government […] It is a historic opportunity to break down the barriers that divide Israeli society, to unite the religious and the secular, between the left, the right and the center, “said Mr. Lapid.
The Prime Minister accused Netanyahu and his team at the same time of failing to prevent the “unavoidable” Mount Meron tragedy, as 45 Jews were killed on Friday in a massive stampede on a pilgrimage that gathered tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews. Orthodoxy.
‘Mass change’
Over the past few weeks, Benjamin Netanyahu has tried to form a “right-wing government” with his allies from the ultra-Orthodox parties and far-right “religious Zionism” formations.
But with the addition of this support, his political counter stopped at 59 elected representatives, and two deputies close to the parliamentary majority.
In an effort to reach this threshold, the prime minister tried unsuccessfully to bring back the right-wing rebels who had left Likud to form the conservative “New Hope” party, and to co-opt Mansour Abbas’s Islamist party, Raam, which made him furious.
But will the opposition succeed today, as Benjamin Netanyahu failed yesterday? First, the leader of the opposition must ensure that he has the mandate to form the government.
In that capacity, former Army Chief Benny Gantz said Tuesday evening that he had “spoken with all leaders of the parties supporting the change to ask them to recommend that Mr. Lapid obtain a mandate to form the government,” until forming a government together “within a few hours”.
But once the “anti-Netanyahu” public voices gathered from the left, center and right, the “Change Bloc” counter stops at 51 MPs.
He would thus have to muster another ten seats among the Arab parties (10 elected in total) or form a right-wing radical led by Naftali Bennett, to whom Mr Netanyahu offered, but without success, the position of the first minister in power on Monday.
If the opposition succeeds in forming a government, it will turn a page in Israel’s history with the departure of Benjamin Netanyahu, who has spent the past 12 years in power. Otherwise, the Israelis risk returning to the polls … for the fifth time in just over two years.