Whether Netanyahu can fend off challengers or not, the country is almost certain to be led by a right-wing politician opposed to coddling the Palestinians.
By: AP
Israel’s divided government was heading toward collapse at midnight Tuesday, a step that would trigger the country’s fourth election in under two years and pose an unprecedented threat to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s lengthy grip on power.
Netanyahu finds himself confronted by a trio of disgruntled former aides, led by a popular lawmaker who recently broke away from the prime minister’s Likud party.
Whether Netanyahu can fend off these challengers or not, the country is almost certain to be led by a right-wing politician opposed to coddling the Palestinians, which could thwart attempts by the incoming Biden administration to pressure Israel into painful concessions.
The prospects of Israel’s center-left bloc appear worse than in previous contests because its leader, Defense Minister Benny Gantz, entered into an ill-fated alliance with Netanyahu that is now crumbling.
Gantz lost the support of much of his base.
Netanyahu and Gantz formed their coalition last May after battling to a stalemate in three consecutive elections. They said they were putting aside their personal rivalry to form an “emergency” government focused on guiding the country through the health and economic crises caused by the pandemic.
Under the deal, Gantz assumed the new role of “alternate prime minister” and was assured he would trade places with Netanyahu next November in a rotation agreement halfway through their term.
The immediate cause of Tuesday’s expected collapse was their failure to pass a budget by a midnight deadline. That would cause the parliament to automatically dissolve and set new elections for late March.
But it really reflected the failure of a partnership plagued by mutual hostility and mistrust from the outset. For seven months, Gantz has suffered a number of humiliations and been kept out of the loop on key decisions, such as a series of U.S.-brokered diplomatic agreements with Arab countries.
Netanyahu accuses Gantz’s Blue and White party of acting as an “opposition within the government.”
Gantz has accused Netanyahu of undermining their power-sharing deal in hopes of remaining in office throughout his corruption trial, which is to kick into high gear in February when witnesses begin to take the stand. He and other critics believe Netanyahu ultimately hopes to form a new government capable of appointing loyalists who could grant him immunity or dismiss the charges against him.
“A criminal defendant with three indictments is dragging the country to a fourth round of elections,” Blue and White said Tuesday night. “If there wasn’t a trial, there would be a budget and there wouldn’t be elections.”
Netanyahu is charged with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in a series of scandals in which he is accused of offering favors to media figures in exchange for positive news coverage about him and his family.
In the previous three elections, Netanyahu was unable to put together a majority coalition with his traditional religious and nationalist allies. Yet he controlled enough seats to prevent his opponents from cobbling together an alternate coalition.
According to recent opinion polls, that equation appears to be changing, with a number of rivals poised to control a parliamentary majority without him.
Those rivals are led by Gideon Sa’ar, a stalwart in Netanyahu’s Likud who announced this month that he was breaking away and forming a new party. Sa’ar, who once served as Netanyahu’s Cabinet secretary, has accused the prime minister of turning the Likud into a “personality cult” focused on ensuring its leader’s political survival.
If elections were held today, Sa’ar’s party would finish second behind the Likud, giving him a veto over a Netanyahu-led government, according to polls. Sa’ar has vowed he will not serve under Netanyahu.
Naftali Bennett, another former aide who had a falling out with Netanyahu, leads a religious right-wing party that also has surged in the polls. And Avigdor Lieberman, Netanyahu’s former chief of staff and a longtime Cabinet minister, also says the prime minister is unfit to lead.
(AP)
