Coalition fails touniteinface ofterrorattack
THE TERROR attack on Tuesday morning in a Jerusalem synagogue pushed party politics aside for a while but the tensions in the coalition are still simmering.
On Monday evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed senior members of Likud to “prepare for early elections.” While most of the coalition’s party leaders, including Mr Netanyahu are not in favour of going to the polls after only 20 months in government, it is hard to see how they will bridge over what look now like irrevocable differences.
A series of crises over l e g i s l a t i o n a n d t h e delayed state budget has exposed the coalition’s fault-lines. Mr Netanyahu is still enraged over the “Israel Hayom” which passed its first reading in the Knesset last week, and is aimed at preventing the newspaper, owned by his supporter, casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, from being distributed free. Members of three of the coalition’s parties, Yisrael Beiteinu, Yesh Atid and Ha’Tnuah, voted in favour of the law.
Then there is the controversial “Jewish Nationality” law, proposed by another coalition partner, Bayit Yehudi, which Mr Netanyahu supports. Yesh Atid and Ha’Tnuah strenuously oppose the law, with Justice Minister Tzipi Livni making a major effort to block it. Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett, by contrast, has threatened to pull his party out of the coalition if the law is not voted on next week. Yesh Atid leader, Finance Minister Yair Lapid, is fighti n g t h e Prime Minister on a number of key components of his budget including the zero-VAT plan for first-time homeowners, and hospital reform. Mr Lapid has denied rumours that he is trying to form an “alternative coalition” to depose Mr Netanyahu.
Nevertheless, Mr Netanyahu summoned leaders of the Charedi parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism, offering them a place in the coalition instead of Yesh Atid only for them to turn him down.
By Monday night, even before the security situation dominated the national agenda once again, most of the party leaders were trying to defuse the tension. The most recent surveys indicate that, apart from Bayit Yehudi, all the coalition parties stand to lose seats if an election was held now. So, despite the splits they are all eager to find a way to avoid elections.
In the wake of the terror attack, Mr Netanyahu called upon the leaders of the “Zionist” opposition parties for “unity”. Coalition whip Zeev Elkin was sent to propose informally that they join the government. But, once again, the Prime Minister’s advances were rejected