JERUSALEM (AP) – Israeli President on Tuesday handed over to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the difficult task of trying to form a new government, giving the confronted Israeli leader the opportunity to extend his long term.
But with the newly elected parliament deeply divided and the prime minister tried on corruption charges, Netanyahu had little to celebrate.
He now has up to six weeks to lure his political enemies into a coalition, an effort that seems unlikely to succeed. At the same time, these opponents will work to form an alternative government that can end their twelve-year reign.
In a meeting with members of his Likud party, Netanyahu gave a statistic tone, saying he would be the prime minister of all Israeli citizens, Jewish and Arab, religious and secular.
“We will take care of everyone,” he said, promising to “get Israel out of the cycle of recurring elections and establish a strong government for all the citizens of Israel.”
President Reuven Rivlin addressed Netanyahu following Israel’s fourth conclusive election in the last two years.
In a post-election ritual, Rivlin had consulted each of the 13 parties elected to the Knesset or parliament on Monday, hoping to find a consensus on a candidate for prime minister. But neither Netanyahu nor his main rival, Yair Lapid, received the endorsement of most lawmakers.
When he announced his decision on Tuesday, a restless Rivlin said no candidate had the support to form a 120-seat majority Knesset coalition. He also noted that there are many suspicions about Netanyahu remaining in office during the trial.
Still, he said there was nothing in the law that would prevent Netanyahu from continuing as prime minister and said he believed Netanyahu was more likely than his rivals to conjugate a coalition.
“This is not an easy decision on an ethical and moral basis,” Rivlin said. “The state of Israel must not be taken for granted. And I am afraid for my country. “
Netanyahu did not attend Tuesday’s announcement, as is tradition, and later Rivlin did not appear with Netanyahu in the usual photo of the new parliament’s oath: local media movements interpreted as a sign of the president’s displeasure with the situation.
Netanyahu now has an initial period of 28 days to form a coalition, a period that Rivlin could extend for an additional two weeks.
Netanyahu has received the endorsement of 52 lawmakers, more than his rivals, but still lacks the majority of 61 seats needed to form a government.
It will not be easy to get the support of nine more legislators. Netanyahu will use his formidable powers of persuasion, along with generous offers from powerful government ministries, to woo his potential partners.
Netanyahu will likely require the support of Raam, a small Arab Islamist party. Raam leader Mansour Abbas has left the door open to cooperating with Netanyahu if he helps the Israeli Arab sector, which has long suffered from crime, discrimination and poverty.
But one of Netanyahu’s allies, the religious Zionist party, has an openly racist platform and refuses to serve in a government with Arab partners. Netanyahu could appeal to rabbis who serve as party spiritual guides in hopes of changing their minds.
Netanyahu will also need the support of Yamina, a religious nationalist party led by former rival ally Naftali Bennett, which has also been shown to be fresh with an alliance with Arab parties.
Bennett, a former Netanyahu aide, vowed on Tuesday to negotiate in “good faith,” but made no promises to his former mentor.
Netanyahu’s last hope will be to try to attract “deserters” from other opposition parties. For now, however, Netanyahu’s opponents have vowed to stand firm, especially after the previous government’s painful experience.
After last year’s election, Netanyahu and his main rival at the time, Benny Gantz, agreed on an “emergency” government to tackle the coronavirus crisis. Their association was affected by the fights and collapsed in half a year, leading to the March 23 elections.
“Netanyahu’s chances of forming a government, as it seems right now, are pretty low,” said Yohanan Plesner, president of Israel’s Institute for Democracy, a Jerusalem think tank.
Netanyahu’s corruption process, which resumed this week with the testimony of the first of a string of witnesses to testify against him, will come close to negotiations.
Netanyahu has been accused of fraud, breach of trust and acceptance of bribes in a number of scandals. He denies the charges and this week compared the case to “a coup attempt.”
Lapid, head of the centrist party Yesh Atid, acknowledged on Tuesday that the law left Rivlin with “no choice”, but nonetheless said touching Netanyahu was a “shameful shame that stained Israel.”
Lapid has offered an alternative: a power-sharing deal with Bennett that would allow the two men to rotate between the prime minister’s job. They are expected to hold intense negotiations in the coming weeks.
Plesner, a former member of the Knesset, said the partnership between Bennett and Lapid has “a reasonable chance of materializing.”
Lapid would be able to fulfill his key campaign promise to oust Netanyahu, while Bennett, whose party has only seven seats, would be the first to become prime minister.
“For both of them, it’s a very lucrative deal,” Plesner said.
Gayil Talshir, a political scientist at Israel’s Hebrew University, said Netanyahu’s opponents who share his hard-line ideology, including Bennett, would rather see him fail before combining against him.
“Otherwise, they would have thought, from their own right-wing base perspective, as traitors,” he said.
The new parliament takes office at a time of deep polarization of Israeli society. Last month’s election was seen as a referendum on Netanyahu’s divisive leadership style, and the result was continuous deadlock.
Netanyahu supporters see him as a world statesman who adapts uniquely to run the country. His opponents accuse him of pushing the country through repeated elections in hopes of producing a parliament that would grant him immunity from criminal prosecution.
As a sign of these divisions, about 100 protesters raised proud LGBT flags and a submarine drill in a noisy demonstration in front of the Knesset while the new parliament was being sworn in. The proud flags were aimed at pro-Netanyahu religious Zionists, whose members are openly homophobic, while the submarine points to a graft scandal related to the purchase of German subs.
When the new Knesset was invested, Rivlin appealed to the unit. It was the last time Rivlin addressed the meeting and the outgoing president, who is stepping down this summer, was excited.
“If we do not learn and find a model of collaboration that allows us to live here together, out of mutual respect, out of genuine commitment and solidarity, our national resistance will be in real danger.” He said.