Netanyahu vows to form coalition
ISRAEL’S acting prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told supporters he will build a new ruling coalition and said the next government could not depend on Arab parties.
Singling out the US and its president, Donald Trump, Mr Netanyahu, whose right-wing Likud party came in second in general elections, according to exit polls, said Israel was at a historical juncture ahead of great security and diplomatic challenges and opportunities.
“Negotiations with Trump will decide Israel’s future for decades, so Israel needs a strong, stable and Zionist government,” he said. “There won’t and cannot be a government supported by anti-Zionist Arab parties who deny the existence of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, who glorify bloodthirsty terrorists who murder our soldiers.”
The acting PM, who has been leading the executive since 2009, said he had already initiated negotiations with Likud’s potential coalition partners on the right. Likud could ally with its main rival in these elections, the moderate Kahol Lavan – Blue and White – alliance led by Benny Gantz.
Exit polls appeared to show Mr Netanyahu failing to garner enough seats for a government coalition with his traditional right-wing and ultra-Orthodox partners unless he can convince former defence minister and hard-line hawk Avigdor Lieberman to join.
Mr Lieberman, who is leader and founder of the ethnonationalist Yisrael Beiteinu – Israel Our Home – party, has until now rejected being part of any executive that doesn’t represent Jewish fundamentalists.
However, he said yesterday: “We have only one option: a broad liberal unity government including Yisrael Beiteinu, Likud and Kahol Lavan.”