T. Belman. Bennett’s choice. He can join the left including Ra’am and form a government. But he already said he wouldn’t.
Or he could join the right, in the hope that some or all of New Hope or Yisrael Beytenu will do likewise. Perhaps he will wait for the right to find two more seats before joining.
On the other hand if Likud appointed Israel Katz as head of the party and Netanyahu as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Likud could easily form a government with New Hope, YB and Yamina. To cement the deal the new government could pardon Netanyahu ( or the Israeli equivalent) and everybody would be happy.
TOI
Pro-Netanyahu activists are reportedly gearing up for what is being described as a massive campaign designed to pressure right-wing parties to join a Likud-led government coalition.
Right-wing parties New Hope and Yisrael Beytenu are both in the replace-Netanyahu bloc and Yamina is also considering signing on, joining forces with center-left and Arab factions to oust the premier.
But Likud is hoping to convince them to switch sides and rejoin Netanyahu, despite promises from New Hope leader Gideon Sa’ar and Yisrael Beytenu’s Avigdor Liberman not to do so.
“The protests outside [the Prime Minister’s Residence] at Balfour are nothing compared to what will be outside their homes and synagogues,” an activist involved in the campaign tells Ynet. “This is something at a level they haven’t seen.”
New Hope politician Zeev Elkin, a former Likud stalwart, confirms reports that Likud has sent representatives to party leaders to offer the top ministries, but tells Army Radio they were turned down.
He says it is up to Yamina’s Naftali Bennett, indicating that the rest of the bloc is already set.
@ Adam Dalgliesh:
Katsav was an Iranian Jew for the record. The rape charge was proven in court. There was also several sexual harassment convictions in a unanimous verdict.
If Saar and Edelstein are pragmatic they will just join Bibi. Lets face in another election their party will disappear from the map forever. Will they follow Lapid as PM and a coalition including the Arab parties? That would be crazy.
They can negotiate excellent Ministry Positions and if it is perceived that they did a good job they can stay politically relevant. Otherwise in another election they can join another party maybe like Yamina or try and pass the thresh hold which will not be likely.
Bibi can probably form a government with Blue and White if he allows Gantz to keep his positions as deputy prime minister and “alternate prime minister.”I think Bennet and Yamina will agree to serve in the same government with Blue and White, as they have done in the past. Gideon Saar has committed himself to not serving with Bibi as prime minister, and I think he has boxrd himself in by making this promise too often. Some Likudniks think that one or two of his colleagues on the New Hope list might be persuaded to join the government in return for cabinet positions and a “full pardon” to allow them to return to Likud.
Of course, all bets are off if the 400,000 or so “absentee” ballots are found to overwhelmingly favor the Left and the Arabs, which is very likely. And not to mention the thousands of additional “absentee” ballots which will probably turn up during the counting process.
Clear evidence of larg-scale electoral fraud has already turned up in the form of “cover sheets” that were mysteriously missing from 180 ballot boxes scattered accross the country. The workers at 180 widely scattere polling places all making the same mistake by throwing out the cover-sheets is not possible.
This provided an excuse for redoing the “recounting” the ballors and creating, new, non-original cover sheets with the newly recalculated statistics. Shades of U.S. November 20, where the same trick was used in Georgia. Probably where the Israeli ballot-counters got the idea.
“Fact Check:”The Supreme Court has ruled that any cabinet minister except the Prime Minister must resign or be removed from office by them (the Supremes) if indicted by the court. In a ruling that surprised some on the left, they ruled that the Prime Minister did not have to resign even if indicted. They also ruled that no one facing an indictment could be appointed to a cabinet position. In so doing, they were only affirming what was written in an existing law. However, since the court can and frequently does strike down laws at will, it was still a Supreme Court decion, which they made after Netanyahu’s indictment was “finalized.” As for pardoning Netanyahu, the “government” as a whole cannot do this, only the president, who is Rivlin. Rivlin could have done this at any time since Netanyahu was indicted. But he hasn’t. One reason, I think, that he hasn’t is that not too long before he was elected President by the Knesset, the attorney-general, whoever it was at that time, was investigating him on some trumped up charge or other (pun not intended). He probably did not want to end up like one of his predecessors as president, (a Kurdish Jew whose name I forget, someone remind us of it), n who was not only forced to resign but served several years in prison on a fake rape charge.
P.S. the deposed president’s name is Moshe Katsav.