Posted on 03/01/2013 6:54:52 AM PST by Eleutheria5
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will meet President Shimon Peres Saturday evening and ask him for a two-week extension in which to put together a coalition of parties and form a new government.
Peres will grant Netanyahu the two-week extension.
If Netanyahu fails to cobble together a coalition within a fortnight, however, he will be in serious trouble. Peres could decide to task someone else with creating a coalition, or new elections could be called.
We are, therefore, entering the "money time" of coalition crafting.
The reports in two major news sources Friday that Netanyahu's representatives offered Yesh Atid a policy of destroying Jewish communities in return for their entry into the coalition without Bayit Yehudi, vindicate Bayit Yehudi's decision to enter into a tactical alliance with Yesh Atid. Together with reports that Likud made contradictory overtures to Bayit Yehudi, they portray Netanyahu in an unflattering light and are no cause for pride, for supporters of Likud / Yisrael Beytenu.
Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett wrote on his Facebook page Friday: "While the Likud was explaining to us how important it is to abandon the connection with Lapid in order to strengthen the settlement enterprise, it was explaining to Lapid how important it is to abandon Bayit Yehudi in order to tear down the settlement enterprise."
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(Excerpt) Read more at israelnationalnews.com ...
Lapid is the Israeli Obama. An empty suit.
You may be right, Eleutheria5, but on the other hand Lapid may believe in building a big coalition for himself in order to become Prime Minister, and he wants Bennett to be chearing him on. Furthermore, if Lapid’s big issue is bringing an increased number of hareidim into the IDF, he may be trying to win over the religious zionists in the hope that the resistance to this change by the hareidim will have less sympathy among religiously-oriented Israelis than it would if the religious zionists felt that the government was going to use the army to tear down Jewish communities in Yehuda and Shomron.
On the other hand, he also wants to tear down communities in Judah and Samaria. Could Bennett actually be so blind? Besides, universal conscription is not that simple. Some Hareidim, such as Neturei Karta, should absolutely not be in the IDF. Most Israeli Arabs should not. If they are going to have universal conscription, they must have a neutral form of service for people who are security risks, such as working in hospitals or sanitation.
Money quote:
“Bennett has been warning for months that Netanyahu is planning a leftist, defeatist government, based upon a coalition with hareidim and leftist parties, including Yesh Atid. Likud’s reported overtures to Yesh Atid, if true, confirm that he was right.”
But a coalition that includes both Bennett and Lapid will mean what? They are mutually exclusive, imho. Bennett can’t even do a Bibi-style double cross. Some of his MKs ARE mitnahalim from Hebron. Tzipi flipped out and yelled at him in an elevator, calling him an extremist. He has said he would not follow an order to destroy an outpost. He’s to the right of Menahem Begin as he was in 1948. Lapid, on the other hand, is the very embodiment of leftist defeatism. This pact of theirs cannot work, except as a trick to depose Bibi, and Lapid will likely stab Bennett right in the back, as soon as Bibi makes the right offer.
Well said.
Look for Labor to join Likud and Yesh Atid in a leftist ‘unity’ government.
Hatnua, too, in case they’re short of the magic number 61.
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