CLOUDS HANG OVER NETANYAHU’S CONFIRMATION AS PRIME MINISTER
Coalition secures short-term future but threat of prosecution for bribery and fraud still looms
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to serve all Israelis after being confirmed for his fifth term yesterday, all but cementing his legacy as the country’s longest serving prime minister and leader of the most extreme right-wing government in its history.
“I will work for all Israelis,” he said. “Those who voted for me and those who did not.”
Although Mr Netanyahu and his main competitor – the newly formed Blue and White coalition – each gained 35 seats in last week’s election, only the Likud leader secured enough support from other parties to form a ruling coalition.
Mr Netanyahu’s short-term future is now secured. But hanging over his fifth term is a looming indictment by Israel’s Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit on charges of bribery, breach of trust and fraud connected to three cases.
Mr Netanyahu will also have to balance ideological divides within the right between secular and religious parties, all while under pressure from competitors to fulfil campaign pledges, such as his last-minute bid for votes in exchange for annexing the West Bank if re-elected. In addition, the Donald Trump administration continues to claim it will propose a new US peace plan for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the contents of which remain unknown.
Per Israel’s election laws, President Reuven Rivlin met this week with parties elected to the 21st Knesset, or parliament, to determine who to recommend to lead Israel’s 35th government.
By the end of Mr Rivlin’s consultations on Tuesday, Mr Netanyahu had officially secured 65 recommendations, putting him beyond the 62 seats needed for a majority in the 120-seat parliament. Forty-five members of the Knesset recommended Blue and White leader Benny Gantz, cementing their place in the opposition. The 10 Knesset members from Arab-majority parties declined to nominate a leader.
The meetings are largely a formality. Mr Gantz had already announced his defeat last Wednesday as it became clear that Mr Netanyahu had enough support from other right-wing parties to cobble together a ruling coalition.
To enter the Knesset, a party must receive at last 3.25 per cent of the overall vote, or a minimum of four seats. Mr Netanyahu’s probable coalition will be comprised of his Likud party, the ultra-Orthodox Shas party and United Torah Judaism party, which each won eight seats, the Union of Right Wing Parties and Jewish Home party, each with five, and Kulanu, which gained four seats.
Noticeably absent from the room is the New Right Party, led by Netanyahu competitors Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked.
Mr Bennett and Mrs Shaked split from the Jewish Home party over ideological differences and to form their own party to take on Mr Netanyahu from the right. But they failed to pass the threshold of votes needed to enter the Knesset. The Central Elections Committee published final election results on Tuesday night and Mr Netanyahu will be formally sworn in on April 30.
Mr Netanyahu served his first term as prime minister from 1996 to 1999. He won his next election in 2009 and has been re-elected three times since.
At his swearing-in in 2009, Mr Netanyahu did not mention a two-state solution, which he has long opposed, but told the Palestinian leadership “if you really want peace, we can achieve peace”.
This time around his language has been far from conciliatory; his campaign repeatedly lambasted opponents, left-leaning Israelis and Arab and Palestinian citizens of Israel.
Still, the exact make-up of his government, such as who will head which ministry, remains to be seen. In a last-minute re-election bid, Mr Netanyahu pushed through a coalition of three extreme-right and fringe parties, including Jewish Power, a Jewish supremacy party and offshoot of designated terrorist Meir Kahane. Mr Netanyahu reportedly offered two ministries to leaders of the two other parties in exchange for aligning with Jewish Power, though it is not clear if he will follow through on that promise.
Mr Netanyahu has also reportedly been in talks with his coalition about pushing through a law providing him legal immunity from persecution while prime minister.
If Mr Netanyahu remains in the role after July 16, he will succeed David Ben-Gurion as the longest serving prime minister in Israel’s history.