Israel’s Netanyahu given 14 more days to form government as he struggles to build coalition

[DonViejo]

Source: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was on Monday given a 14-day extension to form a new government as he struggles to build a coalition after four weeks of intensive talks.

Such a move is far from unusual in Israel where it is almost unheard of for a single party to win an outright majority, and lengthy negotiations with multiple potential coalition partners are the norm.

Following last month’s general election in which Netanyahu’s rightwing Likud party won the largest number of seats, the Israeli premier was on March 25 tasked by Rivlin with forming a new government.

He was given 28 days to complete the task, but with the Wednesday deadline looming, and no agreement in sight, he went to Rivlin early on Monday to request the extension. “I am giving you another 14 days to put together a government,” Rivlin told Netanyahu in remarks broadcast on Israel’s main radio stations.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/2015/04/israels-netanyahu-given-14-more-days-to-form-government-as-he-struggles-to-build-coalition/

[Fred Sanders]

1. The All of Us party is required to join with Bibi...will they? Is it the pre or post-election Bibi making the promises?

[peacebird]

10. "Pre or post election Bibi", love it! Hoping he fails... Miserably.

[global1]

2. What Happens After These 14 More Days If He Doesn't Form A Government?......nt

[DonViejo]

3. If I understand the process correctly...

if he doesn't come through in 14 days, the next highest vote getter will be asked to form a government.

[rpannier]

4. The Coalition Group with the 2nd highest number of parties that signed on

get a crack at it

If you wanna follow the process this site is pretty good for following the Knesset

http://knessetjeremy.com/

[NV Whino]

5. Well, this could get interesting

Even when he wins, he could lose.

[LeftishBrit]

7. 'Wins' means 'got 23% of the vote'

The Labor-led group got 19% of the vote; the Joint List of Arab parties got 11%; and there were lots of other parties, many of them nuttier than fruitcakes, getting 8% or less. As I doubt that Netanyahu will form a coalition with his main opponents, and there is even less chance of his forming one with the Joint List, he is courting the smaller parties.

Imagine the American president needing to form a formal coalition with Pat Robertson, Pat Buchanan, and some even nuttier types in order to take office.

Ah, the wonders of almost-pure proportional representation. Not that I'm mad on the other extreme - pure first-past-the-post in a multi-party system - which operates in the UK.

[NV Whino]

11. Thanks for pointing that out.

I hadn't followed closely enough to realize the 23%.

[karynnj]

12. Exactly - and add to that, the reason he got the 23% rather than something closer to 19%

was that in the week before the election, he went far right - saying no 2 state solution, more settlements and on election day speaking of Israeli Arabs being bused to the polls. Note also that Bennett, leader of the far right party, appeared with Netanyahu - and while Netanyahu made a plea for votes - he didn't. That party lost about 4 seats in the last week.

From some accounts, Netanyahu had promised Bennett a lot - and is now not keeping the promises because Bennett got so few seats! This seems to be a pattern and why he is having trouble creating the government which looked very easy to create as it would be only center/right to far right and the religious parties.

In addition, he is trying to get promises from anyone entering the government to vote for a bill that will increase Netanyahu's power over their Supreme Court and possibly the bill stating that Israel is a Jewish State.

It seems that if you look at the block of right or right/center, it did not increase - the right may have, in fact, decreased. Something not mentioned most articles here. While our media has treated him better than they treat Obama, he has shown himself to be a dishonest, demagogic, unlikable man - dislike by most of the leaders of other countries and hated by the leaders of most of the other parties in Israel - even as they see him as a strong leader. Not to mention, he lost the Prime Ministership earlier in his career because he was shown to be corrupt.

So, where he did win the right to form the government and will likely do so, he has done so in an incredibly ugly way -- exposing his worst side. Unfortunately, this will likely not be good for Israel.

[LeftishBrit]

6. Hope he doesn't, especially as some of his potential coalition partners are even worse than he is

[truthisfreedom]

8. And we had to wait for, what, 3 months, to find out that even though Gore won,

lil' boots got 'lected?

[davidpdx]

9. I hope the ass fails

[geek tragedy]

13. Unfortunately, it's pretty likely the axis of evil parties will come to an agreement

at the 11th hour.

The one party that has an incentive to hold out and force new elections are the Bayit Yehudi fanatics. Bibi cannibalized a lot of their voters by campaigning against Arabs and the two-state solution. Another campaign would force Bibi to either own those words or disown them.