Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Sunday that Yamina leader Naftali Bennett's decision to partner with the Left to form a so-called "change government" could spell disaster for Israel and was a form of betrayal of the Right.
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Netanyahu urged right-wing lawmakers who have joined the coalition talks not to establish what he called a "leftist government."
"A government like this is a danger to the security of Israel, and is also a danger to the future of the state," he said just minutes after Bennett announced his decision to break with Netanyahu in order to see if he and Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid could form a new government that would end the 2-year political gridlock in Israel.
Under the emerging deal, Bennett would serve as prime minister for 2 years, after which Lapid would serve during the remainder of the term. The two have tried to cast the government is a government of reconciliation in which both the Right and the Left would avoid hot-button issues and essentially maintain the status quo on nationals security and religious matters.
Netanyahu said that the partnering of Bennett with Yesh Atid and the left-wing parties such as Labor and Meretz would embolden Israel's adversaries. "What will it do for Israel's deterrence? How will we look in the eyes of our enemies," Netanyahu asked on live television. "What will they do in Iran and in Gaza? What will they say in the halls of government in Washington?"
Netanyahu said that "Bennett's only interest is his desire to be a prime minister...he is deceiving the public with lies and empty slogans," and then addressed his challenger directly: "Naftali, your values are not even light-weight; not a single person would have voted for you had they known what you were planning to do."
In order to form a government, a party leader usually has to secure the support of a 61-seat majority in Knesset and win a confidence vote. Because no single party controls a majority on its own, coalitions are usually built with smaller partners and currently, it is the anti-Netanyahu bloc that appears to have the edge, although Netanyahu has said that some MKs in the bloc will ultimately side with him.
The new prospective coalition's diverse members would have little in common apart from the desire to end the 12-year run of Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving leader, now on trial over corruption charges that he denies.
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