- Arab lawmakers on Sunday endorsed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rival, Benny Gantz, who leads the centrist Blue and White Party, in a historic move meant to topple Netanyahu’s 10-year grip on power.
- Partial results from last week’s election indicate that neither Netanyahu nor Gantz has secured an outright majority of 61 seats in its 120-seat parliament in order to secure a win.
- It is now up to Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin to consult with other party leaders to discuss which candidate has the best chances of forming the next government. After the president makes his selection, the chosen candidate has 42 days to form a coalition government through vigorous, often tense, negotiations with smaller parties.
- Arab-led parties have not put forward a recommendation for who should lead the government since 1992, but say this decision represents a furious desire to unseat Netanyahu in a historic upset.
Arab lawmakers on Sunday endorsed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rival, Benny Gantz, to form a government in a shock move that could see Netanyahu’s decade of power finally come to an end.
Netanyahu is the longest-serving leader in Israel’s history. He has also been embroiled in several corruption scandals and may face criminal charges in the near future.
Arab-led parties have not put forward a recommendation for who should lead the government since 1992. In a meeting with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin on Sunday, which was broadcast live, Ayman Odeh, the leader of the Arab Joint List, said his political decision was “historic.“
Ahmed Tibi, a Joint List lawmaker, told Rivlin that removing Netanyahu from power required a “bold step.”
“Benny Gantz is not our cup of tea,” he said. “We have criticism of him from here till tomorrow… But we promised our constituents that we would do everything to topple Netanyahu and the default here is recommending Benny Gantz.”
Odeh wrote in a New York Times op-ed that his decision to endorse Gantz, the leader of the centrist Blue and White Party, and the former military chief of the Israel Defence Forces, was not about agreeing with Gantz’s policies but rather about unseating Netanyahu in a historic upset.
Read the article by Rosie Perper in Business Insider Australia.