NZ Friends of Israel Association Inc
Fighting racial intolerance in New Zealand and beyond
Israel’s parliament has narrowly approved a new coalition government, ending the historic 12-year rule of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and sending the polarising leader into the opposition.
Naftali Bennett, a former ally of Netanyahu turned rival, became prime minister after the 60-59 vote. Promising to try to heal a divided nation, Bennett will preside over a diverse and fragile coalition comprised of eight parties with deep ideological differences.
After 12 straight years as Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu is losing power — and the government that’s about to replace him is remarkable in its own right.
Netanyahu’s ouster is a huge deal on its own. Over the past decade-plus, as the country’s longest-serving leader, he has become nearly synonymous with Israel — shaping its foreign and domestic policy as well as its international image, and personally guiding its relationship with the United States.
Over the past two years, his desire to hold onto power — even as he stands trial on corruption charges — along with his opponents’ desire to oust him, have driven Israel’s political system into crisis. He has become so personally polarizing that a range of ideological allies turned against him — and are on the verge of replacing him.
Now, Netanyahu’s opponents have announced that they have succeeded in defeating him. And when they get sworn in later this month, unless Netanyahu somehow manages to scuttle that, the government they form will itself break boundaries. It will be an unprecedented alliance of political right and left, Jews and Arabs, all dedicated to one goal: ending the Netanyahu era. At the same time, there are ways that, even under new leadership, Israel is unlikely to change.
Here’s what you need to know about Israel’s incoming government.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s opponents have announced they have reached a deal to form a new governing coalition, paving the way for the ousting of the longtime leader.
The dramatic announcement by opposition leader Yair Lapid and his main coalition partner, Naftali Bennett, came moments before a midnight (local time) deadline and prevented the country from plunging into what would have been its fifth consecutive election in just over two years.
Centrist Lapid and ultra-nationalist Bennett have joined forces and agreed to rotate the premiership between them, with Bennett going first.
Here are several possible options.
Ahead of Tuesday’s election, all the party leaders, from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on down, spoke to reporters and analysts constantly, in order to try to get out the vote.
But once the polls closed Tuesday night, most of the politicians suddenly became completely silent. The quiet was not because they were tired.The only party leaders who sought the press on Wednesday were obvious winners like Ra’am (United Arab List) head Mansour Abbas and Labor leader Merav Michaeli.The others made a strategic decision to wait to talk again – at least until the results of the election were complete.
With 97% of the normal ballots counted, Netanyahu’s Likud won 30 seats, Yesh Atid 17, Shas 9, Blue and White 8, United Torah Judaism, Yamina, Yisrael Beytenu and Labor 7, New Hope, the Joint List and the Religious Zionist Party 6 and Meretz and Ra’am 5.
There still remain some 430,000 double envelopes, which are ballots from hospitals, nursing homes, emissaries, soldiers, prisoners and special polling stations for returnees at Ben-Gurion International Airport and for the sick and quarantined from COVID-19.
The double ballots are worth some 11 seats – enough to change the outcome of the election significantly in a race so close.
NZFOI: Wow!
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be able to form a government for the seventh time in his three-decade political career, according to exit polls on the three television networks Tuesday night.All three polls indicated that his bloc of Likud, Shas, United Torah Judaism and the Religious Zionist Party received enough support together with the Yamina Party of Naftali Bennett, who said during the campaign that he was ready to join a coalition with either political bloc.
For the fourth time in two years, Israel is holding an election.
And for the fourth time in two years, no one knows who will win or what will happen next. In many ways, the election on Tuesday feels like the last three — some of the same central issues, the same dysfunction and many of the same candidates.
In other ways, however, it feels radically different, opening up new possibilities and directions for Israel’s future, no matter who wins.
NZFOI: The 2021 Israeli General Election is only a couple of days away.
Just before the elections: A survey carried out by Mano Geva in collaboration with iPanel conducted for News 12 shows: The Prime Minister is gaining momentum towards the finish line, with a further increase in the likud mandate count – at the expense of Sa’ar and Bennett, who are plunging into single digits.
However, Netanyahu is still one seat away from 61 that will allow him to form a government, and the opposing bloc also fails to reach a majority.
