The former Prime Minister now has 28 days to compose the new Executive
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog this Sunday gave former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the mandate to form the new government once the consultation process was completed following early parliamentary elections on November 1. Before the talks began, Herzog said he hoped to fulfill the mandate during the daytime Sunday, with the Likud leader a strong favorite after his bloc won a majority of seats in the Knesset.
In this way, 64 parliamentarians have recommended ‘Bibi’ for the position of prime minister, while 28 have expressed their support for the leader of Yesh Atid and the current prime minister, Yair Lapid, according to the newspaper ‘The Jerusalem Post’. For example, Netanyahu has gained the support of Likud, Shas, United Torah Judaism, Religious Zionism, Otzma Yehudiy and Noam, enabling him to form a coalition of right-wing, ultra-right and ultra-Orthodox parties. Lapid has only had the support of his party and the Labor Party, while the United National Party, Yisrael Beitenu, and the Arabs of Raam and Hadash-Taal have avoided recommending any of the MPs who will form the next Knesset .
As of now, Netanyahu has 28 days to assemble the new Executive. Failing that, he could grant him a fourteen-day extension, after which he would have to decide whether to leave the task to him, entrust it to someone else, or call new elections.
The consultation process was marked by statements by Herzog, captured through an open microphone, in which he stated that “everyone is concerned” about the possibility that the leader of the far-right Otzma Yehudit, Itamar Ben Gvir, will hold a portfolio in the Executive.
The Israeli president himself conveyed these concerns to Ben Gvir on Thursday, telling him that he “has a certain image that in many places is concerned about the treatment of Arabs in the state and in the region.” “World leaders are asking questions,” he stressed. “In the Muslim world, I am asked about the Temple Mount. This issue is a sensitive one,” Herzog said, referring to the Esplanade of the Mosques by which Jews know the place, as reported by The Times of Israel newspaper.
In response, Ben Gvir said he “doesn’t treat the Arabs like a monolith”, though he stressed that “there must be order”. “We are not saying that the Temple Mount is not sacred to others, but we must remember that it is our heart and our history. We are against racism and you cannot tell a Jew that he cannot go because he is a Jew. I am for equal rights,” he settled.
Source: La Verdad
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