May 14 2021 A new round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict continues to escalate, the Israeli army on the 13th in the border area to assemble ground troops, threatening to enter the Gaza Strip. Some political analysts say there is little hope that the opposition camp of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will succeed in forming a government, with Israel likely to hold its fifth parliamentary election in two years and Netanyahu expected to remain in power as caretaker prime minister.
Israel held its fourth parliamentary elections in two years on 23 March this year. Mr Netanyahu was recommended by the largest number of MPs to form a government again. But he failed to form a new government after failing to win the support of more than half of the MPs by the deadline.
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin on May 5 authorized Netanyahu’s political opponent, yael Lapid, leader of the centre-left party “Have a Future”, to form a new government. The anti-Netanyahu camp, such as the “Have the Future” party, needs to win the support of two small and medium-sized parties, the United Right Alliance and the United Arab Party, if they are to succeed in forming a government.
Israeli media have previously reported that Mr. Lapid has recently been negotiating with Naftali Bennett, leader of the United Right Coalition, to discuss the feasibility of forming a coalition government and rotating as prime minister. According to the media, Mr Lapid agreed to make important concessions, with Mr Bennett as prime minister for the first half of the term and Mr Lapid taking over in the second half.
But Bennett said Wednesday that he abandoned alliance talks with Lapid. In a televised address later, Mr. Lapid expressed regret for Mr. Bennett’s decision.
Bennett’s change of tune comes as violent clashes between Arabs and Jews in Israel have intensified, Reuters reported. Some Arab and Jewish towns mixed riots, the Israeli city of Lude 12 state of emergency, Mayor Yael Revivo said the local “riots have lost control.”
Bennett told the media that the current situation, with the United Arab Party hand in hand to form a coalition government is “not feasible.”
Mansour Abbas, leader of the United Arab Party, said Bennett called to tell him he would no longer consider the possibility of a “change of government” from the three parties.
The United Arab Party has previously said it will not participate in the cabinet talks in the event of an Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip.
Under Israeli law, Mr. Lapid has a 28-day term to form a government, and if he fails to do so by then, he can apply to the president for a 14-day extension. If Mr Lapid fails to form a government on schedule, Mr Rivlin will hand over the power to form a government directly to parliament, which any member of parliament can elect if he or she can get at least 61 recommendations within 21 days, or parliament will automatically dissolve and parliamentary elections will be held again.
The Knesset is unicameral. By law, political parties with more than half of the seats in Parliament may form a separate government. There has never been a single party forming a government in Israel’s history because of the presence of small and medium-sized parties.
