Israel is ready to vote in a new coalition government on Sunday, particularly without Benjamin Netanyahu at the helm, and end a political crisis that has seen four general elections in two years.
The new government of Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid will be voted on by the Knesset, and if a majority (61 votes or more) is given to the new coalition, Israel will have a new administration and, for the first time in 12 years, a new one. Prime Minister.
In a late-breaking drama, Hebrew media channel 12 reports that a Knesset member of Mansour Abbas’s Arab-Israeli party threatens not to vote for the new government, protesting the intention to demolish houses in the Negev. However, as long as there are no other last-minute surprises, the coalition is expected to receive a small majority of votes.
If the majority passes, Naftali Bennett, a former defense minister and right-wing leader of the Yamina party, will take the first two-year term followed by a second term from Yair Lapid, the centrist leader of the Yesh Atid party.
Bennett and Lapid will present the plans of the future government in the Knesset. Netanyahu, the possible opposition leader, is also expected to speak.
The coalition parties in the new government are expected to place internal issues and post-Covid 19 economic recovery above issues related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Sources close to the coalition said The News Logics this was due to “on the one hand the lack of a partner on the Palestinian side and on the other hand a significant disparity in approaches to problems within the incoming coalition.”
Parliament will then vote on the new government after the variety of speeches.
The new government is regarded as the broadest political coalition in Israel’s history, incorporating the Arab-Israeli Ra’am party under Mansour Abbas, as well as seven other parties from left to right.
If voted, the new government will head to the president’s residence for the traditional group photo of ministers with outgoing President Reuven Rivlin, who will end his seven-year term on July 9.