Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's opponents on Wednesday announced they have reached a deal to form a new governing coalition, paving the way for the ouster of the longtime Israeli leader.
The dramatic announcement by opposition leader Yair Lapid and his main coalition partner, Naftali Bennett, came shortly before a midnight deadline and prevented the country from plunging into what would have been its fifth consecutive election in just over two years.
바카라 웹사이트“This government will work for all the citizens of Israel, those that voted for it and those that didn't. It will do everything to unite Israeli society,” Lapid said.
바카라 웹사이트Under the agreement, Lapid and Bennett will split the job of prime minister in a rotation.
Bennett will serve the first two years, while Lapid is to serve the final two years. The historic deal also includes a small Islamist party, the United Arab List, which would make it the first Arab party ever to be part of a governing coalition.
바카라 웹사이트The agreement still needs to be approved by the Knesset, or parliament, in a vote that is expected to take place early next week.
바카라 웹사이트If it goes through, Lapid and a diverse array of partners that span the Israeli political spectrum will end the record-setting 12-year rule of Netanyahu.
바카라 웹사이트Netanyahu, desperate to remain in office while he fights corruption charges, is expected to do everything possible in the coming days to prevent the new coalition from taking power. If he fails, he will be pushed into the opposition.
바카라 웹사이트Netanyahu has attempted to put pressure on hard-liners in the emerging coalition to defect and join his religious and nationalist allies.
바카라 웹사이트Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin, a member of Netanyahu's Likud party, may also use his influence to delay the required parliamentary vote.
바카라 웹사이트Lapid called on Levin to convene the Knesset for the vote as soon as possible.
바카라 웹사이트Netanyahu has been the most dominant player in Israeli politics over the past three decades — serving as prime minister since 2009 in addition to an earlier term in the late 1990s.
바카라 웹사이트Despite a long list of achievements, including last year's ground-breaking diplomatic agreements with four Arab countries, he has become a polarising figure since he was indicted on charges of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in 2019.
바카라 웹사이트Each of the past four elections was seen as a referendum on Netanyahu's fitness to rule. And each ended in deadlock, with both Netanyahu's supporters as well as his secular, Arab and dovish opponents falling short of a majority.
바카라 웹사이트A unity government formed with his main rival last year collapsed after just six months.
바카라 웹사이트The new deal required a reshuffling of the Israeli political constellation. Three of the parties are led by hardline former Netanyahu allies who had personal feuds with him, while the United Arab List made history as a kingmaker, using its leverage to seek benefits for the country's Arab minority.
바카라 웹사이트“This is the first time an Arab party is a partner in the formation of a government,” the party's leader, Mansour Abbas, told reporters.
바카라 웹사이트“This agreement has a lot of things for the benefit of Arab society, and Israeli society in general.”
바카라 웹사이트Lapid, 57, entered parliament in 2013 after a successful career as a newspaper columnist, TV anchor and author. His new Yesh Atid party ran a successful rookie campaign, landing Lapid the powerful post of finance minister.
바카라 웹사이트But he and Netanyahu did not get along, and the coalition quickly crumbled. Yesh Atid has been in the opposition since 2015 elections.
바카라 웹사이트The party is popular with secular, middle-class voters and has been critical of Netanyahu's close ties with ultra-Orthodox parties and said the prime minister should step down while on trial for corruption charges.
바카라 웹사이트Bennett, meanwhile, is a former top aide to Netanyahu whose small Yamina party caters to religious and nationalist hardliners.
바카라 웹사이트Bennett was a successful high-tech entrepreneur and leader of the West Bank settler movement before entering politics.
바카라 웹사이트It is far from certain that their coalition will last that long. In order to secure the required parliamentary majority, Lapid had to bring together eight parties that have little in common.
바카라 웹사이트Their partners range from a pair of dovish, left-wing parties that support broad concessions to the Palestinians to three hard-line parties that oppose Palestinian independence and support West Bank settlements.
바카라 웹사이트Lapid's Yesh Atid and Blue and White, a centrist party headed by Defense Minister Benny Gantz, and the United Arab List are the remaining members.
바카라 웹사이트The coalition members are hoping their shared animosity to Netanyahu, coupled with the agreement that another election must be avoided, will provide enough incentive to find some common ground.
바카라 웹사이트“Today, we succeeded. We made history,” said Merav Michaeli, leader of the dovish Labor Party.
바카라 웹사이트The negotiations went down to the wire, with Labor and Yamina feuding over the makeup of a parliamentary committee.
바카라 웹사이트Earlier this week, when Bennett said he would join the coalition talks, he said that everyone would have to compromise and give up parts of their dreams.
바카라 웹사이트During the recent election campaign, Bennett had publicly vowed never to share power with Lapid or an Arab party. But facing the prospect of another unwanted election, Bennett, like the others, found flexibility.
바카라 웹사이트In order to form a government, a party leader must secure the support of a 61-seat majority in the 120-seat Knesset, or parliament.
