Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party publicly attacked Yamina and its leader Naftali Bennett on Tuesday, while the prime minister allegedly privately attacked religious Zionism and its leader Bezalel Smotrich after suffering a heavy defeat in the Knesset on Monday.
Amid the ongoing deadlock after the election, a Likud proposal to represent the party on the key committee for transitional arrangements was rejected by the Knesset, despite the support of both Yamina and religious Zionism.
The proposal was defeated when the Islamist party Ra’am, which Netanyahu hopes the government will support, voted with the opposition. Ra’am then backed an opposition counter-proposal that was adopted, giving the anti-Netanyahu bloc a majority in the committee.
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The defeat caused a prime minister’s associate to publicly reflect that it looks like Likud will not continue to lead the country.
In a statement on Tuesday afternoon, Likud accused Bennett of “rushing to a left-wing government with Meretz and Labor in support of the Common List”, the latter being a predominantly Arab party. He cited Yamina’s opposition to Likud on Monday against a proposal to appoint Knesset vice-presidents on Monday night after losing the Arrangement Committee vote (though he neglected to mention that Yamina fully supported the prime minister on the main issue).
Meanwhile, Kan news reported that Netanyahu blamed Smotrich for defeating Likud, citing his repeated attacks on Ra’am amid coalition negotiations. “He stopped us,” Netanyahu is said to have told senior officials in his Likud party.
However, Netanyahu and Smotrich met on Tuesday afternoon for talks, the contents of which were not immediately known.
Ra’am leader MK Mansour Abbas said after the vote of the Arrangements Committee that he had been expelled from supporting Likud to vote because of “inciting” parliamentarians of religious Zionism, Likud allies, who regularly accuse Israeli Arab parties in the Knesset of anti-Zionist, supporting Palestinian terrorism and hating Israel.
Abbas is also reported to have been frustrated by the fact that Likud kept him informed during negotiations with other parties on the committee and the coalition in general.
Netanyahu told Likud officials that “Smotrich’s challenges to Ra’am’s people are what led Mansour Abbas to go the other way,” Kan reported.
Smotrich continued his attacks on Ra’am on Tuesday, as well as on those who support co-operation with the party, tweeting that the threat to the right-wing camp comes from anyone “who irresponsibly strives to have supporters of terrorism who deny the state’s right to exist.” maintains the balance of power and becomes the ones who determine our future; anyone who wants to turn the Jewish state into a hostage, dependent on extortion of protection money from enemies ”.
Netanyahu and Smotrich met later that day for further talks.
Screenshot of the video of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Knesset, April 19, 2021. (Kan)
Abbas told Kan on Tuesday: “We will not agree to be a punching bag or a target for incitement, blood slander and false accusations.”
However, he stressed that his party’s actions the night before should not be taken as an indication of general support for the opposition.
“I didn’t cut the lines of communication with anyone,” he said. “There is no inclination here; we will go with whoever steps towards us “.
Abbas insisted that his talks with opposition leader MK Yair Lapid, which precipitated his vote with the opposition, focused exclusively on the committee and did not address any potential coalition building to replace Netanyahu.
Others attacked Smotrich on Tuesday for his defeat and refusal to consider co-operation with Ra’am, without whom Netanyahu has little hope of forming a government. An anonymous source in the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, which is allied with Netanyahu, told the daily Maariv that the leader of religious Zionism is behaving “like a child who did not receive the gift he was waiting for and they smashed the store. ”
The setback for the Arrangements Committee came as Netanyahu struggled to build a majority coalition after last month’s inconclusive election. To reach a 61-seat Knesset majority, the Netanyahu-led bloc must include both religious Zionism and the Yamina party led by MK Naftali Bennett, as well as external support from Ra’am’s four MPs.
Smotrich ruled out participating in a coalition that relies on support outside of Ra’am.
Netanyahu is facing the “bloc of change” of the right, left and center parties, led by Lapid. That bloc will also not be able to form a government without Yamina and Ra’am.
Neither party has engaged in either party.
Orit Farkash-Hacohen. (Yanai Yechiel)
Senior Yamina officials said on Tuesday that they had received messages from Netanyahu’s negotiating team that the prime minister was ready to give up his efforts to form a government, saying Likud did not hope to find a solution to Smotrich’s objections. Ra’am either manages to remove individual lawmakers from the bloc of change or persuade New Hope leader Gideon Sa’ar to bring his party into a coalition to keep the prime minister in power.
Those close to Netanyahu are said to be divided between continued coalition building efforts or the formal return of President Reuven Rivlin’s term. Netanyahu has two more weeks to try to complete the pregnancy.
According to Kan, some Netanyahu advisers believe that the return of the mandate earlier could surprise the anti-Netanyahu bloc without a guard and leave less time to maneuver to form a coalition.
Tourism Minister Orit Farkash-Hacohen of the Blue and White Party attacked Bennett on Tuesday for continuing to play both sides, telling 12 News that Bennett and Yamina could not stay on the fence much longer.
After the vote, Netanyahu’s allies are increasingly considering failing to form the next government, Shas MK Yinon Azulay told Radio 103FM that the commission’s vote “has shown that it is not yet certain that we will be in government”.
Likud party whip MK Miki Zohar, who chairs the Arrangements Committee, wrote on Twitter that the party has not given up yet, writing that “we continue to fight for our path and do not give up so easily.
“Despite all the difficulties, I will continue to do my best to help Likud and the Prime Minister together with our partners, to succeed in the future battles in the Knesset,” he wrote.
Screenshot from Likud MK Miki Zohar’s video chairing a meeting of the Knesset Arrangements Committee, April 19, 2021. (Knesset Channel)
The night before, as he chaired the inaugural meeting of the Arrangements Committee, Zohar said that after losing it in the plenary vote, the Likud party understood that Netanyahu was not going to form a government and that the party was moving into opposition.
If Netanyahu fails to form a government, Rivlin will either have to nominate a second candidate or send the mandate back to the Knesset to directly elect a parliamentarian to do the job.
The tombstone of the opposition also faces significant challenges in forming the majority, as the anti-Netanyahu bloc includes parties that are diametrically opposed in their views on major issues.
If none of the blocs establishes a government, Israel will go to its five elections within three years, all four of which fail to go through the political logjam.
UTJ leader MK Moshe Gafni told Kan on Tuesday that his party would stay with Netanyahu no matter what, even if it means joining the opposition.
“Our position is unequivocal and will not change depending on the mood,” Gafni said.