In a day of dramatic developments in Israeli politics, the Arab-dominated Joint List party on Sunday chose to recommend to President Reuven Rivlin that Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz form the next government; the Yisrael Beiteinu party — poised to be the kingmaker — recommended no one; and rumors flew that Blue and White wants Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be given the first chance to form a governing coalition.
The September 17 elections, the second this year, resulted in a stalemate in which neither Blue and White nor Netanyahu’s Likud received enough Knesset seats to form a government. Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman has refused to commit to either side, thus holding the balance of power.
The decision by the Joint List was historic, as it is only the second time an Arab party has recommended a candidate from a Zionist party, the first time being Yitzhak Rabin in 1992.
Israeli news site Mako reports that firebrand Joint List MK Ahmed Tibi said, “We’ll make history today: We’ll do what needs to be done to bring down Netanyahu.”
Joint List chairman Ayman Odeh said the Arab public was a vital factor in recent elections, motivated by what he called right-wing incitement against them.
“What is at stake is Benny Gantz,” said Odeh. “Our public has gone halfway: Our voters have arrived, and they wanted to do everything in order to replace Netanyahu.”
“We want to live in a place that has real equality and justice,” he added. “Most of the Israeli public has said its piece — no to the rule of Benjamin Netanyahu.”
“We don’t usually recommend,” Odeh said, “but there is a historical aspect here — we want to end the Netanyahu era.”
Lieberman explained his decision not to recommend anyone by saying both Blue and White and Likud have said they are open to including the Haredi parties or the Joint List in a governing coalition. Lieberman rejects collaboration with either of these groups.
Lieberman has consistently said that he will only support a Likud-Blue and White unity government.
Referring to Netanyahu and Gantz, Lieberman said, “Right now, if you want to get out of this political crisis, you have to sit down with the two people as quickly as possible.”
“I hope that with the president’s leadership, a solution can be reached very quickly,” he added.
Lieberman added that he had no preference as to who will be prime minister in any rotation agreement between Blue and White and Likud, saying, “It’s not my business.”
However, he said, Israel should not be dragged into a third round of elections “just because of who will be first and second.”
At the same time, it has been reported that Blue and White will tell President Rivlin that Netanyahu should be given the first chance to form a coalition.
The reason appears to be a political calculation that Netanyahu will be unable to put together a government, which, combined with Netanyahu’s hearing on corruption charges scheduled for next month, may motivate the Likud to replace him as leader, making a unity government without Netanyahu possible.
However, Netanyahu may actually want Gantz to get the first opportunity, since a failure on his part would put more pressure on him to join a Netanyahu-led unity government.
The Algemeiner (c) 2019 . Benjamin Kerstein
{Matzav.com}
