Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intended to formally offer a rotation in the Prime Minister’s Office to Yamina leader Naftali Bennett and New Hope chairman Gideon Sa’ar after Tuesday’s Likud central committee meeting, but his fight over the Justice Ministry portfolio postponed his plans, Likud sources said.
The central committee on Tuesday voted to enable Netanyahu to negotiate mergers with Yamina and New Hope, giving him leverage ahead of next Tuesday’s deadline to form a government. Netanyahu told the Likud activists at the meeting he was making a significant effort to form a right-wing government.
But Likud sources admitted momentum was lost due to the fight in Tuesday’s cabinet meeting over both the appointment of a temporary justice minister and Netanyahu’s attempt to bypass the law by appointing a loyalist to the sensitive post, despite Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit‘s opposition.
Bennett spoke to Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid on Tuesday, and negotiating teams of their parties were set to speak late Tuesday night after days without talks, as conversations that were stalled started up again in light of the day’s events.
Sources in the “change” camp said Netanyahu’s behavior gave them “new hope” of successfully wooing both Bennett and Sa’ar. They said Sa’ar’s slamming of Netanyahu’s handling of Tuesday’s cabinet meeting gave them renewed optimism.
“The saga surrounding the appointment of the justice minister, which reached a peak in a delusional cabinet meeting, is further testimony of the need to replace the government,” Sa’ar tweeted.
Unlike Sa’ar, Bennett made a point of not singling out either side in his criticism of the day’s events.
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“Israel has reached the edge of anarchy,” he said. “I call on everyone to understand the fate of the moment and display national responsibility. Israel needs a functioning and stable government.”
Blue and White Party leader Benny Gantz warned Sa’ar and Bennett that Netanyahu repeatedly broke his commitments in the outgoing government and could not be trusted to change his ways in the next one.
“I call upon lawmakers who are still deliberating: Netanyahu has violated our agreement time and time again, and he will do the same with any other agreement,” he said.
“His word means nothing, and his personal considerations overshadow any other consideration,” Gantz said. “This is what the moment demands of us: to get beyond our differences. Israel needs a devoted national government that protects the fundamentals of democracy above all else – those same fundamentals that Netanyahu is currently trying to undermine.”
Lapid, who leads the opposition, wrote: “Anyone who even for a moment considered signing any agreement with Netanyahu has received a reminder that there is no chance he will honor any agreement he signs.”
Netanyahu’s behavior was also proof of his disdain for the law, he said.
By contrast, Religious Zionist Party leader Bezalel Smotrich mocked Bennett, saying he would help form “a government of change” that would allow Mandelblit to act as “the real prime minister.”
Likud MK Galit Distal Atbaryan said Sa’ar’s response indicated that “attorney Sa’ar doesn’t understand the law, and politician Sa’ar is stuck in the swamp of the deep state on the Left.”
Idan Zonshine contributed to this report.
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