JERUSALEM (AP) – Israeli President on Tuesday handed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the difficult task of trying to form a new government, giving the attacked Israeli leader a chance to extend his long term.
But with the newly elected parliament deeply divided and the prime minister tried on corruption charges, Netanyahu had little to celebrate.
He now has up to six weeks to lure his political enemies into a coalition, an effort that seems unlikely to succeed. At the same time, those opponents will work to form an alternative government that could end his 12-year reign.
In a meeting with members of his Likud party, Netanyahu set the tone, saying he would be the prime minister of all Israeli citizens, Jews and Arabs, religious and secular.
“We will take care of everyone,” he said, swearing to “get Israel out of the cycle of recurring elections and establish a strong government for all the citizens of Israel.”
President Reuven Rivlin has appealed to Netanyahu following Israel’s fourth inconclusive election in two years.
In a post-election ritual, Rivlin consulted on Monday with each of the 13 parties elected in the Knesset or parliament, hoping to find a consensus on a candidate for prime minister. But neither Netanyahu nor his main rival, Yair Lapid, received the approval of the majority of parliamentarians.
Announcing his decision on Tuesday, a troubled Rivlin said no candidate had the support to form a 120-seat majority Knesset coalition. He also mentioned that there are many doubts about the fact that Netanyahu remains in office during the trial.
However, he said there was nothing in the law to stop Netanyahu from continuing as prime minister and said he believed Netanyahu was more likely than his rivals to form a coalition.
“This is not an easy decision on a moral and ethical basis,” Rivlin said. “The state of Israel must not be taken for granted. And I’m afraid for my country. ”
Netanyahu did not attend Tuesday’s announcement, as is tradition, and Rivlin later did not appear with Netanyahu in the usual photo of the new parliament’s swearing-in – local media moves interpreted as evidence of the president’s dissatisfaction with the situation.
Netanyahu now has an initial period of 28 days to form a coalition, a period that Rivlin could extend for another two weeks.
Netanyahu received the approval of 52 lawmakers, more than his rivals, but still in the absence of the majority of 61 seats needed to form a government.
Securing the support of nine more parliamentarians will not be easy. Netanyahu will use his formidable persuasive powers, along with generous offers from powerful government ministries, to judge his potential partners.
Netanyahu will probably need the support of Raam, a small Arab Islamist party. Raam’s leader, Mansour Abbas, has left the door open for cooperation with Netanyahu if he helps Israel’s Arab sector, which has long suffered from crime, discrimination and poverty.
But one of Netanyahu’s allies, the religious Zionist party, has an openly racist platform and refuses to serve in a government with Arab partners. Netanyahu could turn to rabbis who serve as the party’s spiritual guides in hopes of changing his mind.
Netanyahu will also likely need the support of Yamina, a religious nationalist party led by former rival Allied Naftali Bennett, who has also been cool with an alliance with Arab parties.
Bennett, Netanyahu’s former assistant, promised on Tuesday that he would negotiate in “good faith”, but made no promises to his former mentor.
Netanyahu’s last hope will be to try to lure “deserters” from other opposition parties. For now, however, Netanyahu’s opponents have vowed to stand firm, especially after the previous government’s painful experience.
After last year’s election, Netanyahu and his main rival at the time, Benny Gantz, agreed with an “emergency” government to deal with the coronavirus crisis. Their partnership was marred by fighting and collapsed in half a year, triggering the March 23 elections.
“The chances of Netanyahu forming a government, as it seems now, are quite low,” said Yohanan Plesner, chairman of the Israel Institute for Democracy, a think tank in Jerusalem.
Netanyahu’s corruption trial, which resumes this week, was resumed with the testimony of the first in a series of witnesses to testify against him.
Netanyahu has been accused of fraud, breach of trust and acceptance of bribes in a series of scandals. He denies the allegations and this week compared the case to “an attempted coup”.
Lapid, the head of the centrist party Yesh Atid, admitted on Tuesday that the law left Rivlin “no choice”, but said that touching Netanyahu is a “shameful shame that stains Israel”.
Lapid offered an alternative: a power-sharing agreement with Bennett to see the two men rotate between the prime minister’s job. They are expected to hold intense negotiations in the coming weeks.
Plesner, a former Knesset member, said the partnership between Bennett and Lapid was “reasonably likely to materialize.”
Lapid would be able to fulfill his key campaign promise to oust Netanyahu, while Bennett, whose party has only seven seats, would be the first to be prime minister.
“For both of us, it’s a very profitable business,” Plesner said.
Gayil Talshir, a political scientist at Israel’s Jewish University, said Netanyahu’s opponents who share his harsh ideology, including Bennett, would prefer to see him fail before uniting against him.
“Otherwise, they would have thought of them, from their right-wing perspective, as traitors,” she said.
The new parliament takes office at a time of deep polarization in Israeli society. Last month’s election was seen as a referendum on Netanyahu’s divisive leadership style, and the result was a stalemate.
Netanyahu’s supporters see him as a global statesman who is uniquely suited to the country’s leadership. His opponents accuse him of pushing the country through repeated elections in hopes of producing a parliament that would grant him immunity from prosecution.
As a sign of these divisions, about 100 protesters hoisted flags of LGBT pride and a simulated submarine in a loud demonstration in front of the Knesset, as the new parliament was sworn in. homophobic, while the submarine indicates a graft scandal involving the purchase of German submarines.
While the new Knesset was sworn in, Rivlin called for unity. It was the last time Rivlin would address such a meeting, and the outgoing president, who is leaving office this summer, seemed excited.
“If we do not learn and find a model of partnership that allows us to live here together, out of mutual respect, commitment to each other and genuine solidarity, our national resilience will be in real danger,” he said.