Photo: Noam Revkin Fenton / Flash90
Former Minister of Science and Technology, MK Yizhar Shai, this evening (Thursday) sent a letter to the faction leaders in the 24th Knesset, proposing an outline that would prevent Prime Minister Netanyahu from forming a government and allow a coalition to be formed in Israel.
At the basis of the outline is the proposal for the establishment of a national emergency government for a limited period of time and with focused guidelines that are based on broad agreements.
According to Yizhar Shai, the coalition will be based on the right, there is a future, blue and white, new hope, Yisrael Beiteinu, Labor and Meretz. The joint list and RAAM will support the government from outside.
The prime minister will be one of the three major party leaders in the coalition (Yair Lapid, Bnei Gantz or Naftali Bennett) and his identity will be determined by a referendum between the 68 members of the above factions. After the election of the candidate, all the members of these factions will sign their recommendation to the President of the State to impose the task of assembling the government on this candidate.
The national emergency government that Yizhar Shai proposes will focus on recovering Israel from the corona crisis, transferring a budget for the years 2021-2023 and creating economic growth engines that will propel the wheels of the economy. It will maintain the status quo with regard to religion and state to enable broad support for it, and will enact two basic laws: (1) Restriction of terms for the term of office of Prime Minister of Israel (2) Prohibition of the term of office of a defendant for serious offenses as Prime Minister.
In his proposal, Shai wrote: “You, the party leaders who promised their voters a change, have a majority given to you in the democratic elections that took place here this week. We have no reason to believe that a fifth round will produce different results from the four rounds that preceded it, and national responsibility requires a creative solution to the dangerous impasse in which the political system finds itself. I turn to you, the faction leaders: Please, take responsibility, set a personal example, do what it takes to form the government that the citizens of Israel expect.
“Do the right thing,” he asked. “Those who do not support this government will have to give explanations to the citizens of Israel about their priorities and the fact that they preferred narrow political considerations for the good of the state and its citizens. Israel, why did you choose not to end the severe political crisis in the country’s history, why did you prefer to go to another expensive and unnecessary round of elections, which does not guarantee fundamentally different results. “