After the 4th election in 2 years, and a failed attempt by Benyamin Netanyahu to form a government
Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid will get a chance to try and form a government.
It won’t be easy, because when all is said and done, his best sales pitch to get a coalition, he would need to add 44 MK to his party’s 17, is, “If we can keep a government together long enough, Bibi goes to jail.”
That’s enough for me, but in the batsh%$ insane world of Israeli politics, who knows:
Israel’s president has handed centrist politician Yair Lapid a shot at forming a government after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to do so, stirring anticipation that Israel’s longest-serving leader could soon be out of power after 15 years in office.
The outcome is uncertain, however. Mr. Lapid faces a difficult task in stitching together a government from a group of rivals across the political spectrum over the next four weeks. Some are united only in their desire to replace Mr. Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption. He denies any wrongdoing.
Mr. Netanyahu faced similar problems after March’s national election. He had hoped to win back defectors or persuade right-wing partners to form a government with the support of an Islamist party before his mandate expired at midnight on Tuesday.
If Mr. Lapid also fails, then President Reuven Rivlin would hand responsibility for selecting a new prime minister back to Israel’s parliament before a new election is called, which would be the country’s fifth since 2019.
I run the numbers of the usual suspects, and Yesh Atid (17) + Blue and White (8) + Labor (7) + Meretz (6) only takes them to 38 seats.
This would mean that they would need to get coalition members from some combination of Arab Parties (10), religious parties (22), and right wing parties not named Likud (20) to get to 61 seats.
I do hope that they manage it though, because Netanyahu in jail would be good for Israel and the world.