Israel’s 20th Knesset is set to be sworn in tomorrow, but the formation of the new government appears far from complete. Last Wednesday, President Reuven Rivlin formally charged Prime Minister Netanyahu with the task of creating the next coalition. Over the last week, Netanyahu met with members of HaBayit HaYehudi (which won 8 seats), Kulanu (10), Yisrael Beytenu (6), and ultra-orthodox parties Shas (7) and United Torah Judaism (6). If he succeeds in bringing together these parties under a Likud (30) umbrella, he will head a religious right-wing coalition of 67 seats. He has untilMay 7 to present his coalition to the president.
However, negotiations are not going as smoothly as Netanyahu would like. Infighting among Likud and demands from possible coalition partners have presented challenges. Lieberman hopes to gain the Defense Ministry, though Netanyahu wants to keep him in his current position as Foreign Minister and keep Likud member Moshe Ya’alon in Defense. Kahlon cancelled the first meeting between his centrist Kulanu party and the prime minister last week, but is set to meet with Netanyahu today.
The most significant stumbling block appears to be Naftali Bennett and his HaBayit HaYehudi party. The faction polled at significantly higher numbers leading up to elections and Netanyahu’s jump in seats came mostly at the party’s loss. Senior Likud officials have said that Bennet’s ego has been the main obstacle in negotiations.
Bennett has accused Netanyahu of sabotaging the negotiations to open the door to a coalition with the center-left Zionist Camp. Zionist Camp polled at similar numbers to Likud for the month leading up to the election, but only received 24 seats. Likud fired back, with a senior official quoted in the daily Yedioth Aharonot claiming Netanyahu has not ruled out forming a unity government with Herzog, but only as long as Livni is not part of the deal. “Netanyahu understands that a government with Labor is better than the options he has now. Netanyahu is forced to deal with small and medium-sized right-wing parties who are making unreasonable demands,” the official stated. While pairing is highly unlikely, as Herzog has denounced such an agreement repeatedly in past days, achieving a strong coalition seems it will require finding a solution with either Bennett or Herzog.