Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid and Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman met on Friday for the first time since Tuesday’s election to discuss ways to work together to form a government that could replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The two agreed to stay in touch and meet again soon, a spokesman for Yesh Atid said.
Meanwhile, in a statement on Friday, Yamina chairman Naftali Bennett said he had spoken over the past two days with the leaders of all non-Arab parties from the right and left, wishing a happy Easter for them, and “emphasizes the need to take responsible action, a principle to free Israel from chaos and allow it to return to proper functioning as soon as possible.”
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Bennett, who has not pledged to support the pro- or anti-Netanyahu blocs, is seen as the baseline of any future coalition as a result of the unopposed election.
Liberman, who won the party seven seats, submitted before the election that he intends to propose that it will be incumbent on Lapid, the party that won 17 seats, to form the next government. Labor leaders – seven seats – and Meretz – six seats – have also announced that they will reinstate the chair of Yesh Atid, giving him 37 proposals.
After presenting the results of the formal election to President Reuven Rivlin next week, he will hold consultations with senior representatives from all Knesset parties, hear who they are proposing for prime minister, and then accuse him of the candidate he deems to have the best chance of gathering a Knesset majority. . with the act of forming a new government.
Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz, who won the party eight seats, has said he will recommend who has the best chance of forming a government, without ruling Lapid anymore.
New Hope Gideon Sa’ar won just six seats after a campaign in which he promised to become the next Prime Minister. The judicial lawyer promised during the campaign not to sit under Lapid. However, the two have spoken since the election and have agreed to work together to replace Netanyahu.
New Hope Party leader Gideon Sa’ar and party members at New Hope headquarters in Tel Aviv, on election night, March 23, 2021. (Tomer Neuberg / Flash90)
Lapid would receive six more recommendations from the Joint List, which chairman Ayman Odeh has refused to support leader Yesh Atid.
However, Odeh’s No. 2 Ahmad Tibi told Kan news on Friday that the joint list would have major demands from the parties in the anti-Netanyahu bloc seeking their support, both on proposals to the president and on the Knesset chairman sent instead to take control of parliament from Likud Netanyahu.
“Not everything comes automatically – we have applications,” Tibi said.
Joint List party member Ahmad Tibi will speak at a press conference presenting the Joint List Hebrew election campaign in Tel Aviv, February 23, 2021 (Miriam Alster / Flash90)
If Lapid is backed by Blue and White, New Hope and the Joint List, it will have 57 recommendations – five more than Netanyahu if the main supporter is from Sas (nine seats), Torah United Judaism (seven sets) and Religion Guilt (six seats).
Head Yamina Naftali Bennett at a party event on March 23, 2021. (Avi Dishi / Flash90)
Bennett at Yamina, the party won seven seats; And the chairman of Ra’am Mansour Abbas, who won the party four seats, is less likely to recommend either Netanyahu or Lapid but is seen as coalition rulers with options to cooperate with either block.
Given that Netanyahu’s block, when Yamina is included, is just two sets of mostly shy, Likud has been trying to coax lawyers from the other side into the usual shadow. abandon them to join a right-wing religious coalition.
The most likely candidates seem to be in New Hope, the closest ideologically linked to Likud and made up of the majority of party members.
Likud MK Sharren Haskel announces her retirement from the Knesset and Likud party, on 23 December 2020. (Yonatan Sindel / Flash90)
New Hope’s Sharren Haskel admitted on Friday that Likud’s representatives had offered her a “half-kingdom” to make up for it.
“Not a chance.” I am committed to the values on which New Hope was founded, and not to care what portfolio you offer me. Give, ”she wrote.
On Thursday, No. New Hope 2 lawyer Yifat Shasha-Biton said several of Netanyahu’s companions had also tried to persuade her to leave her party and join Likud’s main group.
“It is no secret that there is great pressure on us to join a Likud-led government, including myself personally,” Shasha-Biton told Channel 12. ” I have received official communication, as have other members of New Hope, but it is not going to happen. “
MK Yifat Shasha-Biton. (Miriam Alster / Flash90)
Yoaz Hendel, another lawyer in New Hope, thwarted a similar attempt to lure him into Likud.
“For everyone who contacts me – a text messaging campaign in the middle of a Passover cleanup is not going to make any difference,” Hendel wrote on Twitter, referring to a tradition ahead of the upcoming holidays. come. “Now, with the results of the last election, it is only a change of government. Give up the phone calls and go and clean. “
Sa’ar is a staunch critic of Netanyahu who has once again vowed not to join a coalition led by Netanyahu. New Hope had a disappointing display in the election after voting at more than 20 seats.
Sa’ar tweeted on Friday, “I want Netanyahu to step aside. Release Israel from your hand and let us move forward. “
Religious Zionism chairman Bezalel Smotrich on Thursday called on Sa’ar and Yamina’s Bennett to join the Netanyahu bloc and “put aside personal issues and enter a right-wing government.”
