By TOI STAFF
Yisrael Beytenu party chief Avigdor Liberman leads a faction meeting at the Knesset on June 24, 2019. (Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90)
Yisrael Beytenu party chief Avigdor Liberman said Wednesday that he would be pleased were a broad unity government formed consisting of the ruling Likud party and its main rival Blue and White, even in the unlikely event such a coalition did not include his own party.
“I doubt a wide unity government would be formed without me,” he reportedly said in an interview. “But I would accept it.”
“We want a broad national government and we will recommend a prime minister without interfering with who heads any party or if there is a rotation,” he said. “I think it is possible and necessary to establish a broad national government with Likud and Blue White, and with Netanyahu,” Liberman told the Kan public broadcaster.
He added that the public debate should be focused not on the identity of the prime minister, but on the kind of government.
Blue and White leader Benny Gantz speaks at a press conference in Tel Aviv on June 26, 2019. (Flash90)
Blue and White leader Benny Gantz has vowed not to join a government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is facing indictment in three criminal cases.
Liberman also repeated his assertion that Netanyahu’s Likud is no longer a right-wing party.
“This is the same Netanyahu who pays protection money to Hamas, who fears evacuating Khan al-Ahmar [a Bedouin village slated for destruction] even though the High Court of Justice approved it, voted for the [2005 Gaza] disengagement and prevented the death penalty for terrorists. What exactly is his connection to the right?
“Netanyahu and the Likud party of today have no connection to the right. From the moment all the Likud members remained silent, they gave this legitimacy,” he said.
Liberman added that the Blue and White and Labor parties, similar to Netanyahu, are hoping to form a narrow government with the ultra-Orthodox parties — Yisrael Beytenu’s bitter opponents.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) and leader of the Yisrael Beytenu political party Avigdor Liberman sign a coalition agreement in the Israeli parliament on May 25, 2016 .(Yonatan Sindel/FLASH90)
“I heard them this week, everyone, including [Labor leader] Amir Peretz, who also wants the ultra-Orthodox. We do not want the Haredim — we will not sit in the government with the ultra-Orthodox and with the Messianists,” he said, referring to the Union of Right-Wing Parties, whose lawmakers include newly appointed Transportation Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has said the country should aspire to be run as “in the days of King David.”
On Saturday, Liberman said, “We have no interest in joining the Likud party. It is a populist, half-Haredi party, one that sanctifies a personality cult” around its leader, Netanyahu.
Netanyahu’s failure to form a government after the April elections stemmed from Liberman’s refusal to join a coalition unless a bill formalizing military exemptions for seminary students was passed without changes, a condition rejected by the premier’s ultra-Orthodox allies.
Netanyahu was tasked with putting together a coalition, but was unable to muster up a ruling majority before the deadline. Under Israeli law, if the prime minister-designate cannot form a government before the clock runs out, the mandate goes back to the president, who assigns another lawmaker to do so.
However, at Netanyahu’s instigation, the Knesset instead voted to dissolve itself minutes ahead of the deadline in late May and schedule fresh elections, preventing another MK, a rival from inside or outside Likud, from getting a crack at assembling a coalition.
See https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/likud-trying-to-keep-all-options-open/ on some more interesting commentary on the difficulties that the Knesset elected in September might encounter in forming a viable coalition government.
@ Adam Dalgliesh:
Shabat Shalom!
@ Bear Klein: Bear,I wrote good shabbes, not “good shares.” The people who designed my MacBook air writing program are clearly malicious sadista and saboteurs. For goodness sake, never by an Apple (“Lemon”) computer. You would have to spend many thousands of dollars to find one that actually works.
@ Bear Klein: Hope you are right, Bear. Good shares, Adam.
@ Adam Dalgliesh:Waiting for the parties to finalized in the next weeks (deadline). Then waiting for the Sept. elections. Not too stressed. As people have said in Israel forever Ye he Ye Besder (It will be okay) or in other words do not worry.
@ Bear Klein: Bear, an even worse possible development is that the mix of political differences and personal grudges among Israel’s political leaders may once again make it impossible to form a government, and lead to yet another election with a year and a half. And leaving Israel without a functioning elected government indefinitely. The Israeli press is describing such deep divisions between, and even within, all of the political parties, that it is difficult to see how a majority coalition of 61 Knesset members to agree to give a vote of confidence to any new government. There could even be four, five or six elections within a few years.
The impact of this would be even more horrific for Israel than even a government with Arab anti-Zionist-Islamist representation. It would leave the self-perpetuating Supreme Court, which is “elected” by only a handful of people, as Israel’s only effective government. The court would declare a “national emergency” and appropriate to itself the few powers that it has so far left to Parliament, such as the right to levy taxes and approprite funds to government departments, and to through this control the state’s budget and spending. The “justices” could also claim and exercise the power to appoint cabinet-level officials, including the Prime Minister, if no majority coalition can be assembled. They could suddenly discover that all of the rightwing nationalist parties, except possibly the Likud, are “racist” and ban them, thereby enabling a leftist Knesset to be finally elected.
And of course these developments could result in most Israeli Jews losing all confidence in the legitimacy of the state. That in turn could lead to civil war, the disintegration of Israel s a functioning society and the conquest of Israel by the surrounding Arab states.
Four political cancers are destroying the social-political fabric of Israel :
1) The left has betrayed the nation in 1993 ( Oslo ) and clings to that betrayal with pride. The failure of Oslo is constantly covered up by the hate of Bibi , as if Bibi was the Oslo architect, the surrender-escapist of Lebanon in 2000 ( Barak was the one ). To remember the failure of the 2006 Lebanon campaign with Amir Peretz .
2) The right has betrayed the nation by approving constant surrenders ( Wye agreement – Gush Katif Gaza escape in 2006 – Protection money to hamas .) Sharon – Bibi – Likud are responsible . Actually even if the people votes right he receives a left – surrender policy .
3) Both the left and the right have betrayed the people . They are pushing for an extreme version of capitalist monopoly where the only social ladders to climb are the High Tech or the real estate speculation. 30% of the population survives in dire poverty , poor education , menial jobs . All finance ministers keep the building rights to their well-connected kablanim . A discharged combat soldier after 3 years of army is at disadvantage to study and rent a room compared to a leftist draft dodger .There is no compulsory sherut leumi to push the haredim and the arabs into the society .
4) The electoral system is absurd and produces continuous paralysis .The proportional threshold should be at 5%. Also the Israeli expats should vote as in any mature democracies . Note the parties opposing the expats votes are always the arabs , the haredim , the leftists : the anti-zionist bloc .
The politicians do not care , they look at their armchairs .
Thanks, Bear, for your extremely well-informed and insightful report on the pre-election maneuvres and positions of the parties running for the Knesset.
I hope you are right that Blue and White won’t include the Arab parties in a coalition if it the left bloc wins the largest number of seats in the new Knesset. But it is easy to see some possible nightmare scenarios occurring. If Gantz-Lapid won’t join a government with Bibi, the Likud MKs may refuse to join a coalition led by Blue and White. The Likud MKs may decide not to support a Ganz-Lapid government in any case, because of their ideological and policy differences with Blue and White. Lapid’s faction may be unable to reach agreement with the haredi parties, which would in that case refuse to support a Blue and White government. That would leave the Jewish left of center parties with a larger bloc of seats than the right-of-center bloc, but still not enough to win a vote of confidence–without the support, or at least the extension, of the Arabs. If that happens, either of two scenarios might play out. Possibly no government can be formed once again, and yet a third election will be necessary. That would be a disaster that would permanently destroy the Israeli people’s confidence in their government and in their country. Alternatively, Blue and White might form a government after making some kind of a deal with the Arab MKs–who woould then be able to blackmail a Gantz and Lapid government into complying with Arab’s agenda, such as unilateral withdrawal from territory and an end to counter-terrorism operations. This, too, would be a disaster for Israel
@ Adam Dalgliesh:
No Israeli government has ever included the anti-Zionist Arab parties and neither would Blue/White. Right now Blue/White are stating they want a unity government without Liberman because they are trying to get the UTJ/Shas as part of a unity government plus Likud minus Bibi.
Lapid’s positions on the draft are even harder than Liberman. So that is the challenge of Gantz/Yaalon/Ashkenazi in trying to recruit UTJ/Shas.
The elections are still in Sept. and all the parties or technical blocks are not done forming so the polls are as always reflective of a point in time.
Bennett say he will either have a technical block with Zehut or United Right but not both. Shaked is still making her mind but my guess in the end she will go back to the New Right as its head and a technical block with Zehut (Feiglin). The New Right is refusing to have anyone other than Peretz head it. Arrogant and sexist on their part. They have offered her the number 2 spot.
Anyway we will it is early to realistically predict what will happen. Just like in the US (if not more so) people lie to pollsters, which makes them inherently unreliable.
There is a real risk that either no one will be able to form a government following the next election, or that the whatever government will be formed will soon collapse. The political leaders seem to have too many personal animosities and political differences among themselves for them to be able to form a stable coalition.
The most likely outcome of the election, if current polls hold, is an alliance between Blue and White, the samaller leftist parties, and the haredim. If Blue and White formed an aliiance with Leiberman, he would insist on his demands for a haredi draft and probably defunding haredi institutions. THat in turn would lead to massive haredi riots, which Gantz clearly does not want. So the left bloc minus Leiberman will hold their noses and team up with the haredi parties.
Current polls show the leftist block with 67 seats in the next Knesset, if you include Leiberman in the leftist-Arab bloc–which I do, given his current political postures.
Whether Gantz and company will agree to the Arabs’ political demands for giving him a vote of confidence, is hard to say. Much will depend on whether the Arabs make reasonable demands, or will demand such measures as an end to military operations against the Palestinian terrorists, the dismantlement of all roadblocks, taking down the security fence, evscuation of settlements, etc. Only if Blue and White can’t make a deal with the Arabs to at least abstain on the vote of confidence with they agree to a coalition with Likud. If the present polls were to hold, Blue and White could probably form a government without the Likud if the Arabs agree to abstain.
So would I!