Posted on 03/23/2015 7:29:12 AM PDT by Star Traveler
Despite winning the majority of incoming MKs' support to form the next government, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu continues to face suspicions he will abandon them for the Left.
Likud, Jewish Home, Shas, United Torah Judaism, Kulanu, and Yisrael Beytenu all recommended Netanyahu for the task - giving him a total of 67 MKs in his possible coalition.
Still, MK Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) fears Netanyahu may take the President's mandate and instead of forming a narrow right-wing government, create a broad unity government.
"We are opposed to a unity government. The nation made a definite choice," Shaked said during an interview with the Knesset Channel. "We warned that a small Jewish Home would lead to the danger there may be a unity government."
Addressing reports that Netanyahu was in contact with Labor leader Yitzhak Herzog and Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid, Shaked said she did not believe the Prime Minister would renege on his pact with the Right.
"There's been a buzzing around but it's hard for me to believe the Prime Minister will violate his word," she noted.
"A unity government means instability," Shaked continued. "It's a government that will last for only a short time and we will once again be ensnared in elections."
(Excerpt) Read more at israelnationalnews.com ...
Of course there are denials and others saying "no way" ... but the buzz keeps coming up, and from Netanyahu's side of the political fence.
Even the "other side" says, "no" ... but there is always a "no" in politics immediately before the "yes" ... :-) ...
It seems that Netanyahu would be destroying his own future with this move.
The US version of the Unity govt is working just great here...
The broad coalition includes ALL players (that matter): Ø, Pelousi, Reed (sicK), Boehner, McConnell.
bonkers. likud increased the number of seats that it holds in the next knesset. that was the whole point of calling the early election.
Yes we've seen the propensity for Israeli leaders to say one thing before the election and another immediately after winning. But even if Labor and Yesh Atid agreed with this, that would give 35 of the seats in the coalition to Labor and Labor's ally, and 30 to Likud. How could Netenyahu remain prime minister?
Likud increased its seats, but largely at the expense of the other right-wing parties. So to get to 61, he has to either align with all of the right parties and with the religious parties (who are not currently in his governing coalition), or he can leave out the hard right and the religious and join with Zionist Union and with the two centrist parties (Yesh Atid and Kulanu).
Yesh Atid and Kulanu are not really to Bibi's left on national-security issues; their focus is on domestic issues (Kulanu wants more government intervention to lower the cost of living, and Yesh Atid wants to limit the influence of the ultra-Orthodox).
Yesh Atid formerly was part of Likud's coalition; Kulanu is headed by a former Likud member; and Tzipi Livni of Zionist Union was also formerly in Netanyahu's cabinet. So the idea of national unity is not as nuts as it sounds.
But wouldn’t that technically make the Arab bloc (third place in the elections) the opposition party and entitle them to classified national security info? I can’t see Bibi ever letting this happen.
Folks who get breathless over every announced nuance of coalition negotiating better keep up their supply of meth. It took about seven weeks to put together the last government.
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