Jerusalem: Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, says he has secured a deal to form a new government after weeks of unexpectedly tough negotiations with religious and far-right coalition partners.
“I have managed [to form a government],” Netanyahu said on Twitter, minutes before a midnight deadline set by President Isaac Herzog. A Herzog spokesperson confirmed that Netanyahu’s statement had been received.
His conservative Likud and like-minded religious-nationalist parties close to the ultra-Orthodox and West Bank settler communities won a comfortable majority in a November 1 election, promising him 64 of parliament’s 120 seats.
But an agreement to form a government was held up by disputes over a package of proposed legislation on issues ranging from planning authority in the West Bank to ministerial control over the police.
The new government – which Netanyahu must now present within a week – will take office after a year that has seen the worst levels of violence in the West Bank in more than a decade, with more than 150 Palestinians and more than 20 Israelis killed.
A stable government would be a departure from a turbulent period that saw Israelis go to the polls five times in less than four years. But the weeks of wrangling have made clear that the coalition may still face significant internal tensions.
Read the article in by Henriette Chacar in The Sydney Morning Herald.