Posted on 09/30/2019 11:08:09 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Jerusalem: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his rival Benny Gantz traded blame Sunday over the failure so far of efforts to reach a unity government deal following deadlocked elections. A new round of negotiations between Netanyahu's right-wing Likud and Gantz's centrist Blue and White broke down Sunday and the two sides appeared far from reaching a compromise. Likud said Netanyahu would make a "last effort" to reach a deal before informing President Reuven Rivlin he is unable to form a government. That would leave Rivlin to decide whether to ask Gantz to try to do so or call on parliament to agree on a candidate for prime minister by a vote of at least 61 out of 120 members. Netanyahu "will make a last effort to realise the possibility of forming a government at this stage, before returning the mandate to the president," Likud said in a statement. It called the latest round of negotiations a "big disappointment."
Blue and White accused Likud of "throwing around slogans with the sole aim of generating support in preparation for dragging Israel into another round of elections at the behest of Netanyahu." This month's poll was the second this year, after Netanyahu failed to form a coalition following April polls. Israel marks the two-day Rosh Hashanah holiday beginning Sunday night and serious negotiations are not expected during that time. Likud wants to negotiate on the basis of a compromise set out by Rivlin to form a unity government, which takes into account the possibility of Netanyahu being indicted for corruption in the weeks ahead. The proposal could see Netanyahu remain prime minister for now, but step aside if indicted. Gantz would step in as acting premier under such a scenario.
Netanyahu also says he will not abandon the smaller right-wing and religious parties supporting him in parliament, giving him a total of 55 seats backing him for prime minister. Blue and White says Gantz must be prime minister first under any rotation arrangement, since it finished with the most seats in September 17 elections. Blue and White won 33 seats, just ahead of Likud's 32, but neither have a clear path to a majority coalition. Gantz has 54 parliament members backing him for prime minister, but 10 are from Arab parties who say they will not serve in the ex-military chief's government. Rivlin tasked Netanyahu with trying to form a government Wednesday and he has 28 days to do so, with a two-week extension possible. The deadlocked vote has threatened Netanyahu's reign as Israel's longest-serving prime minister. If another election is called due to the standoff, it would be Israel's third in a year.
everyone that thinks that a third party is the solution to our problems should take a look, folks. this is why multiparty democracies don’t work.
That picture does tell a thousand words—that is what a lose lose negotiation outcome looks like.
8 years of a kenyan born indonesian in the catbird seat!
Great reason for not having a parliamentary type government. Our Founding Fathers knew best.
The irony is that Ben (Netanyahu) and Ben (Gantz) probably have more in common with each other ideologically than either has with the “ultra Orthodox” parties (Netanyahu) and “Arab list” parties (Gantz) they are trying to seek out to get a governing majority on their own.
Its looking more and more like the Israeli equivalent of Fine Gael & Fianna Fáil (two squishy right-of-center parties in Ireland, who agree on 95% of the issues but absolutely loathe each other for historical reasons)
I would assume that one major roadblock to a unification government is Netenyahu’s insistence that he remain prime minister for the first part of the sharing of power?
There are professional mediators that are very good at turning lose lose negotiations into win win ones.
I guess they don’t want to go _there_. ;-)
Why can arabs, that want to see all Israeli’s dead, get to vote and influence the stupid way the Jews run their Country?
We are tired of the never-ending campaigns for every two and four years. Imagine the misery of never-ending ELECTIONS!
that’s the whole point. screw with the parties, and you’ll have a lifetime of nancy pelosi hijacking your healthcare, confiscating your income, and redistributing your 401K.
The Arabs in Israel are markedly different from the Arabs on the other side of the wall.
Most are Bedouins, I think. Many are Christians.
While a fair amount of the “Arab political parties” are horrid, they don’t really represent a big chunk of the Arab Israelis, any more than Shakedown Jackson represents a normal black person.
Bingo. Two party system tends to evolve into uniparty.
I was in Israel last week and we were discussing this. The majority of Arabs in Israel used to be Christian...something like 75%. However, because of Muslim Arab immigration through marriage and the fact that they have an average of 7 children (per wife, so many Arab males have as many as 20 children), that proportion has flipped and it is now more than 75% Muslim to less than 25% Christian.
The same is true in Bethlehem, which used to be 90% Christian, and is now nearly 90% Muslim Arab with about only about 10% Christian Arab population. Here a lot of the change is due to Christian Arab emigration to European countries or the US.
So yes, the Israelis are worried about the rapidly growing Muslim Arab population. The Bedouins, strangely, actually seem to be better adapted than the “Palestinian” Muslim Arabs. They insist on living in their shanty towns, despite the attempts of the Israelis to give them decent housing, but now at least the Israelis have gotten them to accept water supplies and this has given the Bedouins a little more stability and gotten them over their unfortunate habit of highway robbery (impromptu “checkpoints” where motorists had to hand over cash to continue). They’re more like Gypsies than anything else, although of course their loyalties are with Islam.
A lot of the changing demographics are entirely due to Israel’s own suicidal domestic policies. For example, “conservative” Likud passing one of the most liberal abortion laws in the western world, where the government gurantees “free” abortions to Jewish women between the age of 18 and 35. It’s no wonder the Muslim population is growing faster than the Jewish population when they do stuff like that. If I was President, I’d take Netanyahu aside privately and give him an earful about his government’s “conservative” policies sharing a large chunk of the blame for the internal mess they’re in. They are headed towards the demographic danger of Israel becoming a majority Muslim state in a few decades due to low Jewish birthrates, large growing Muslim families and Muslim immigration, and the exodus of Arab Christians from their homeland.
And the fact he insists on being party leader in the first place. Blue & White and Avigdor Lieberman's party are OK with a power sharing agreement with Likud, IF the person in charge of Likud is NOT Netanyahu. All he'd have to do is step down as party leader, Likud would elect a successor to serve as Prime Minister, and the other parties on the right would be willing to join such a unity government.
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This is exactly what the “Seventieth Sabbath” is supposed to be like.
Israel needs Bibi.
The only thing that keeps Netenyahu from a criminal trial and possible jail is the fact that he's Prime Minister. It's understandable that he would want to postpone that as long as he can.
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