Peres To Ask Netanyahu to Form New Coalition

Local Editor

"Israeli" President Shimon Peres is expected to task Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Saturday with forming a new government after two days of intense talks with parties elected to the new Knesset.

On Thursday, Peres concluded the second day of back-to-back meetings with representatives of all 12 parties voted into "Israel's" 19th Knesset in last month's general election.
A statement from the Peres office would "announce the candidate who will be tasked with forming the government on Saturday night," without naming a candidate.
The course of the meetings showed that six parties, comprising 82 out of the total 120 parliament members, were in favor of Netanyahu continuing as premier.

Netanyahu's "Likud-Beitenu", the joint list uniting Netanyahu's Likud party with the hardline nationalist "Yisrael Beitenu", won 31 seats to make it the largest bloc in the upcoming Knesset.
"Yair Lapid", whose centrist Yesh Atid won 19 seats in the Knesset , reiterated his support for Netanyahu during a Wednesday meeting with Peres, and his party now looks set to become the "Likud-Beitenu's" senior coalition partner.
The far-right national religious Home, which under Netanyahu's former chief of staff Naftali Bennett won 12 seats, also recommended Netanyahu and will also probably be part of his coalition.

Ultra-Orthodox parties Shas, which received 11 seats, and United Torah Judaism (UTJ), which won seven, also seek to join a Netanyahu coalition.
Both parties voiced their support for him, but Netanyahu might have difficulty seating them in a coalition alongside Lapid, whose campaign stressed the need for a more equal "sharing of the burden."

Center-right Kadima, which in the outgoing Knesset had 28 seats and barely scraped by with two this vote under former war minister Shaul Mofaz, has also told Peres that Netanyahu is the most suitable candidate to form the coalition.
Another potential coalition partner is HaTnuah, headed by Tzipi Livni. The former foreign minister left the Knesset last year after losing the leadership of Kadima to Mofaz, and later in 2012 announced her new movement.
Livni failed to galvanize the center and center-left to form a bloc that would defeat Netanyahu, but her party still won six seats.
After the announcement, the nominee will have 28 days to put together a coalition.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by moqawama.org