Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman discussed today potential solutions for the crisis in the coalition over the state budget. Meanwhile, senior officials in Yesh Atid said that the two parties will soon reach a compromise on a variety of topics and formulate understandings to bridge their disagreements.
As tensions within the fractured government reached new levels throughout the course of the day, party leaders rushed to declare their reluctance to take the country to new elections, cautioning that this was the only alternative to the current coalition.
The head of Yisrael Beiteinu, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, warned Monday that should the coalition break apart, Israel would go to elections.
But he also noted that he did not foresee “any dramatic change happening even after the elections. Perhaps the dramatic change would be if the three nationalist parties – Yisrael Beiteinu, Bayit Yehudi and Likud – together get 60 (Knesset) seats.”
While this was unlikely, Lieberman said he hoped both the current coalition and Netanyahu “know how to get along and find the necessary compromise or right tones (of discourse).”
The foreign minister said the current “escalation of statements was not helping,” noting he believed Yisrael Beiteinu was “the only party that did not present ultimatums. We’re not threatening and we try not to fight with anyone.”
Meanwhile, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, the head of Hatnua, on Monday slammed proposed legislation on defining Israel as the Jewish nation-state, which she has delayed, expressing concerns about its anti-democratic nature.
Explaining her decision to postpone the vote on the proposed Basic Law in the Ministerial Committee on Legislation, Livni called the bill unnecessary, claiming that Israel’s Declaration of Independence “has already determined that Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people, while all its citizens are equal.”
Her primary concern, she said, was that “I object and we will all object to (Israel as) a democratic state that is not Jewish, or a Jewish state that is not democratic.”
Predictions also surfaced of a possible meeting between Netanyahu and representatives of the charedi parties, to examine the possibility of forming an alternative government.
MK Moshe Gafni of United Torah Judaism was quick to explain, however, that he and his colleagues had no intention of acting as the prime minister’s lifejacket.
“If we join the government, we’d save Lapid and he’d rise in the polls. Up to now, he’s been a total failure,” Gafni said.
The charedi parties, usually a fixture in Israeli coalitions, have been left out in the cold by Netanyahu during the formulation of the last government in early 2013.
Read a full report at Ynet.
{Matzav.com Israel}
UTJ is being vindictive and justifiably so.
They ought to,however, expand their outlook.
Hopefully, they will still work together to pass the The Jewish State bill,but if and only if it has any teeth.
Passing the Jewish State bill,is good for the country ,good for the religious,and good for the right.
It also will show they are bigger than just their parochial interests
It is a win win
First rule of diplomacy:
knowing when to seize and make the most of an opportunity
second rule of diplomacy:
when to pass up seizing and makeand make the most of the most ofan opportunity
all those thousands of words here & over the net,of how UTJ would cave and sell themselves to the highest bidder..would they begin to admit that it was all ruthless ,conniving deceit?
Oh, as per mr.bennet words can kill
Too bad the people of the government are fighting each other, and cant to see the pot is boiling over in Israel, but keep on arguing eventually there will not be too much left to argue about, and the world will win. So keep on hating each other that is what the world wants.