Israeli coalition deadline looms fast

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is struggling to form a stable coalition before Wednesday’s deadline after the surprise decision of a former ally not to join his government.

The move by Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman means that Netanyahu must rely on the right-wing Jewish Home party to secure a razor-thin majority.

Netanyahu’s Likud Party emerged from the March 17 election as the biggest faction in Israel’s parliament, the 120-seat Knesset, but well short of the majority needed to form a government. He has until midnight Wednesday to secure the support of 61 Knesset members. If he can’t, Isaac Herzog, whose Zionist Union has the second-biggest parliamentary bloc, will be given the opportunity to form a government.

The prime minister’s task of forging a coalition with Jewish Home is complicated by his strained personal relationship with its leader, Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, who once served as Netanyahu’s chief-of-staff.

Bennett is insisting any further coalition negotiations be conducted only between him and Netanyahu, and has stiffened his conditions for joining the government, Israel Radio said. Spokesmen for both parties had no comment on coalition talks.

“It’s a question of who blinks first, but at the end of the day, Jewish Home will join with Likud,” said Abraham Diskin, professor emeritus of political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “Bennett has no interest in a real crisis that would lead either to new elections, or push Netanyahu to join with a left-wing party like Zionist Union.”

Bennett is pushing Netanyahu to appoint him foreign minister, taking over from Liberman, while handing his party two other cabinet seats, including the Justice Ministry, the Times of Israel said, without saying where it got the information. He’s also seeking more influence over approving West Bank construction, which Jewish Home supports, the newspaper said.

Netanyahu has offered to make Bennett education minister, and give Jewish Home the Agriculture Ministry and the Ministry of Culture and Sport, the Times said.

Opposition chief Herzog said Tuesday that the Zionist Union won’t join a Netanyahuled government if the prime minister fails to reach a deal with other parties.