Prime Minister Netanyahu insists he’s not going anywhere after again failing to form a narrow right-wing coalition, as his rivals hold talks on potentially putting together a unity government that could send Israel’s longest-serving premier packing.
“I want to reassure you, I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying here, fighting together with you until we win,” Netanyahu tells Likud lawmakers during a faction meeting, according to a party statement.
He adds: “I tell you this, we won’t descend into elections because no one wants to elections. Bennett prevented the formation of a right-wing government. We wanted one thing from him to join a bloc of 59. The 59 would bring 61.”
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Prime Minister Netanyahu meets with the leaders of the ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism parties in his right-wing religious bloc.
A Likud statement says they agreed to continue to oppose the “change government” being negotiated by the right-wing Yamina and centrist Yesh Atid parties. They also call on Yamina MKs Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked “to keep their promises to the public and avoid a government with Yair Lapid, Merav Michaeli and Nitzan Horowitz.”
Absent from the meeting is MK Bezalel Smotrich, head of the far-right Religious Zionism party, who is sick.
Clockwise from top: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Likud, Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin of Likud, Interior Minister Aryeh Deri oh Shas, Housing Minister Yaakov Litzman of United Torah Judaism and UTJ MK Moshe Gafni meet on May 6, 2021. (Likud)
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Prime Minister Netanyahu’s right-wing religious bloc announces it’ll recommend that President Reuven Rivlin send the mandate to form a government to the Knesset rather than task another lawmaker with doing so, after the premier’s failure to accomplish the task by last night’s deadline.
Netanyahu’s Likud party, the ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism parties, and the far-right Religious Zionism party say they are doing so because Yamina chief Naftali Bennett would not rule out forming a “left-wing government” with the prime minister’s rivals.
“Likud calls on Naftali Bennett, Ayelet Shaked and all the members of Yamina to honor their election pledge to not go to a government with Lapid and the rest of the left. Likud is convinced that the moment Bennett and Shaked pledge to be part of the right-wing bloc, it’ll be possible to guarantee a majority in the Knesset for a right-wing government,” a statement from Likud says.
May 5, 2021
“The Jewish world took a major hit. Everyone is trying to unite and grow stronger. Once-hostile sectors are removing the barriers. People in Tel Aviv are donating blood to the ultra-Orthodox. Youth movements are making pilgrimage to Bnei Brak to console the grieving families. Ultra-Orthodox and secular Jews are reconciling. We are one nation again. It is only our politicians, who continue with their ugly habits, rejecting some and boycotting others. Sorry, but given your behavior, you are not worthy of this people.”
This scathing piece was written by senior ultra-Orthodox journalist Arye Erlich on Twitter on May 3. It was four days after the devastating tragedy at the traditional Lag Ba’Omer celebration [April 29-30] at the tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai on Mount Meron in northern Israel.
Stuart Winer is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) with MK Miki Zohar during a Likud faction meeting at the Knesset, on December 7, 2015. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
With hours remaining before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s mandate to form a government expires, Likud faction chairman MK Miki Zohar sought approval from a key Knesset committee to fast-track a bill proposing a direct vote for prime minister as a way of resolving the political deadlock in the wake of last month’s inconclusive elections.
However, parties backing Netanyahu as prime minister do not appear to have a majority on the Knesset’s Arrangements Committee or in the Knesset itself making quick passage of the bill unlikely. Yamina indicated it would back fast-tracking the bill, but did not say it would support the bill itself.