Netanyahu struggles to form Israeli coalition before midnight deadline

[DonViejo]

Source: The Guardian

Prime minister seeks backing of far-right Jewish Home party after Avigdor Lieberman’s shock resignation plunges coalition talks into crisis

Binyamin Netanyahu is still struggling to put together a new rightwing coalition government in Israel before a looming deadline at midnight on Wednesday.

Although the prime minister is expected to scrape together a coalition by the thinnest of margins – with the key support of the far-right Jewish Home party led by Naftali Bennett – it appears it will be at the head of an unstable and vulnerable government. Failure to meet the deadline would mean that the Israeli president, Reuven Rivlin, would be required to ask another Israeli MP to try to form a government.

The coalition talks were plunged into crisis on Monday by the surprise announcement by the foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, that he intended to resign and lead his party into opposition, unhappy with the shape of the emerging government. The announcement – made at a highly publicised press conference – has left Netanyahu, who won the largest number of seats in March’s elections, scrambling to seal a deal in the hours remaining.

Before Lieberman bailed out, Netanyahu had hoped to forge a rightwing religious lineup with a majority of 67 of parliament’s 120 seats. Although he has signed coalition agreements with two ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties and the centre-right Kulanu, led by Likud defector Moshe Kahlon, Netanyahu still needs to bring on board the Jewish Home party. Bennett is reportedly demanding a higher political price for signing up following Lieberman’s departure.

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/06/binyamin-netanyahu-israeli-coalition-avigdor-lieberman-defects
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