History repeats itself in Israel and with almost the same protagonists. Acting Prime Minister Binyiamin Netanyahu is again in charge of forming a government after the fourth elections in two years.
The country’s president, Reuven Rivlin, has chosen to entrust the task to the candidate with the most support after the round of consultations with the political parties on Monday. Netanyahu Functions faces a month of negotiations as his corruption trial enters the second day of the evidentiary phase.
Fearful for his country, Rivlin has acknowledged that “this has not been an easy decision on a moral and ethical basis .” After the March 23 elections , the absence of a majority of 61 deputies has installed Israel even further in the political blockade. Neither the Likud of Netanyahu with confidence right – wing religious and not a motley coalition against him add the necessary support to form a government.
During consultations with political parties on Monday, 52 deputies out of 120 asked that the acting prime minister be entrusted with the task of creating a new executive. For Yair Lapid , the leader of the centrist Yesh Atid, there were 45 supporters .
Seven MPs pointed to right-wing Yamina’s Naftali Bennett, and another 16 made no recommendation. Rivlin has chosen Netanyahu despite acknowledging that “there is no candidate with a realistic opportunity to form a government that has the confidence of the Knesset,” the Israeli Parliament.
Month and a half
Now Netanyahu has 28 days to engage in talks that will give birth to a new Executive . After the deadline, you can ask Rivlin for a two-week extension . If he fails to achieve a coalition, the president can name another candidate or pass this task on to the Knesset.
This hard work depends, in part, on the support of the Islamist Raam party . Their leader Mansur Abas has been willing to back Netanyahu, but his religious and anti-Arab partners have refused to sit with him.
On the other hand, Lapid, with 17 seats , continues to make numbers to form a coalition in opposition to the longest-serving prime minister in Israel’s history. ” Mandating Netanyahu is shameful and a stain on the country as a law-abiding state,” he tweeted. Yesh Atid’s leader has offered Bennett a unity government in which the right-wing would serve as prime minister for the first two years.
Netanyahu is already at work to avoid being dethroned . This Monday also began the evidentiary phase of his trial for bribery, breach of trust and fraud . With a fifth election on the horizon, Bibi’s public image begins to deteriorate. Although the ruling could take months or even years to arrive, the procedure will take place three days a week . The case will occupy – even more – the news and social gatherings, a shameful distraction that will increase the demands for the resignation of the imputed leader.
On the second day of witnesses, the prosecutor Yehudit Tirosh has stated that after his testimony the day before, the former executive director of the Walla news site, Ilan Yeshua , had received “unpleasant messages” that he considered problematic . The heyday of his corruption trials coincides with his appointment as head of government, but also with adverse international and national outlooks.
King Bibi
It seems that the twilight of the ‘vaccination nation’ is coming , for its successes in immunizing its population without precedent worldwide . According to the ‘Jerusalem Pos’t, Israel would not have transferred payment for some 2.5 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, creating hostility with the company. Furthermore, the initiation of the war crimes investigation by the International Criminal Court is imminent.
In turn, the crisis of the Jordanian monarchy on the other side of the Jordan River threatens Netanyahu’s reign as its most consolidated regional partner . Also the resumption of the talks with Iran in Vienna shows the distance that the Biden administration maintains with Bibi’s Israel.
An end to this story still seems distant. Meanwhile, an exhausted democracy suffers at the expense of the political blockade and King Bibi’s persistence not to abandon his throne.