Netanyahu Reaches 11th-Hour Deal on Coalition Gov’t

Local Editor

"Israeli" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu managed to reach an agreement over the shape of his new government after resolving an 11th-hour crisis with a key centrist partner, media reports said on Wednesday.
The last-minute deal means "Israel's" new coalition government is likely to be sworn in just days before a top-level visit by US President Barack Obama.
Netanyahu was locked in intensive coalition talks ahead of a looming March 16 deadline to announce the shape of his new government which must have a working majority of at least 61 within the 120-seat Knesset.

Although the outline of coalition emerged earlier this week, a dispute over which party would take the prestigious education portfolio had on Wednesday threatened to derail the deal.
The breakthrough came after Netanyahu agreed that the new centrist "Yesh Atid" party could take the education portfolio, while the interior ministry would go to his rightwing "Likud", "Israel's" main television and radio stations reported.

The leaders of the main "Israeli" parties were to meet later Wednesday to thrash out the wording of the agreement which will see "Likud-Beitenu", which has 31 seats and is headed by Netanyahu and ex-foreign "Israeli" minister Avigdor Lieberman, form a government alongside "Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid" (19 seats) and "Naftali" Bennett's far-right "Jewish Home party" (12).
Until now, only one party has agreed to join a Netanyahu coalition - the centrist HaTnuah of former foreign minister Tzipi Livni, which has six seats.
When the agreement is signed, it will give Netanyahu a majority of 68-70 seats, depending on whether or not the center-right "Kadima" party, which has two seats, is also on board.

It was not immediately clear when the new government would be sworn in, with army radio suggesting it could be as early as Thursday while public radio said it would not happen until Monday, just two days before Obama arrives on March 20.
Earlier, Netanyahu had threatened to turn to the ultra-Orthodox parties to form a coalition if Lapid refused to back down from his "exaggerated demands."
Lapid, who is widely expected to be a senior partner in the new government, has so far managed to convince Netanyahu to agree to a slimline cabinet of 20 ministers, down from 28, and to form a coalition without the ultra-Orthodox.
But the two locked horns over the education and interior portfolios.

"If, in the next hours there will not be a breakthrough in the negotiations with Lapid and he doesn't back down from his exaggerated demands, the prime minister will begin swift talks with the ultra-Orthodox parties," a Likud source said.
The threat was rejected out of hand by "Yesh Atid".

"The coalition crisis that we are currently witnessing is not about which portfolio is given to which party. This is a struggle for the molding of the future image of "Israeli" society," a senior party source said.
"Yair Lapid refuses to deviate from his principles and from his promises to the "Israeli" voter, even if that means that Yesh Atid will have to sit in the opposition."

Source: News Agencies, Edited by moqawama.org