Netanyahu and Bennett discuss building a coalition together

According to Kan News, Bennett wants Lapid to recommend him to President Reuven Rivlin on Monday to form the next government, a requirement that Lapid is unlikely to accept.

At the same time, it is thought that Lapid will demand that Bennett declare that he will not enter a government under Netanyahu as a condition for any discussion of a Prime Minister’s rotation deal between the two in the case of the “bloc for change” and Yamina to establish some form of government.

Sources in Yamina said the party was inclined to recommend Bennett to form a government, although he is almost certainly not close to getting the mandate and seeing how events unfold.

The Islamic Raam Party met on Saturday in Nazareth to discuss who it would recommend to form a government, but made no decision.

Kan News reported that sources within Gidon Saar’s New Hope party indicated that they would not rule out being part of a government that depends on Raam’s abstention.

On Saturday night, at a Mimouna celebration, Netanyahu praised his success in bringing coronavirus vaccines to Israel and warned of the challenges the country faces, including the Iranian nuclear program.

“In the face of these challenges and the incredible opportunities that are before us, we need a stable right-wing government for years that takes care of the citizens of Israel, this is what is needed now and if God wants, we will achieve this, and I believe that is possible, ”said Netanyahu.

On Friday, Netanyahu met with Bennett at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem and discussed the need to form a “stable and functioning government as soon as possible,” said a Bennett spokesman after the meeting.

Netanyahu was expected to offer Bennett important ministerial positions and a merger of Bennett’s Yamina with Netanyahu’s Likud. But he was not expected to offer Bennett what he seeks: a rotation as prime minister.

Bennett refused to reveal his intentions when he spoke to reporters in the Prime Minister’s Office before the meeting.

“We [in Yamina] we have an objective, which is to form a good and stable government that will help Israeli citizens as quickly as possible, “said Bennett.” We will do everything possible to make it happen “.

Sources close to New Hope chief Gideon Sa’ar said on Friday that an Israeli Hayom headline about Bennett offering Netanyahu that leader Yamina would go first in a rotation with the prime minister who would be supported from outside the coalition by New Hope was incorrect.

The sources said he would not only keep his promise not to sit in a government led by Netanyahu, but he would also not return from outside a coalition in which Netanyahu serves as an alternative prime minister.

Bennett will meet on Saturday night with opposition leader Yair Lapid, who is expected to offer Bennett to be the first on a rotation as prime minister. But sources close to Bennett said late on Thursday that he had already decided not to recommend Lapid to form a government when he met with President Reuven Rivlin on Monday.

Leader of the Zionist religious party Bezalel Smotrich reiterated on Friday morning that his party would not sit in a government with Ra’am or “other supporters of terror” after Abbas gave a speech in Hebrew on Thursday calling for coexistence .

“Forming a government that will depend on Ra’am and Abbas will be a disaster and weeping for generations and we will not allow it to be formed,” said Smotrich, calling on Sa’ar and Bennett to join a right-wing government led by Netanyahu.

“Whoever lends a hand to Abbas’s’ outstretched hand ‘castrates – consciously or unconsciously – the most basic Israeli ethos,” warned Orit Struck, elected by the Religious Zionist Party, on Friday, in response to Abbas’ statements that he was extending his arm towards coexistence within Israel.

“Whoever lends a hand to Abbas’ outstretched hand” castrates – consciously or unconsciously – the most basic Israeli ethos and, on the way, kicks those Arabs who are willing to accept this ethos, enlist in the IDF and work for a true partnership with the State of Israel, “tweeted Struck.

But in an effort to change Smotrich’s decision not to depend on Ra’am to form a coalition, Likud MK Ayoub Kara met on Friday with the Zionist Religious Party’s mentor, Rabbi Haim Druckman. Kara The Jerusalem Post after the meeting which was “very interesting” and that both he and the rabbi were optimistic that Netanyahu would be able to form a coalition.

Abbas delivered a Hebrew speech in Nazareth on Thursday night, in an effort to reach out to Israeli Jews, but did not reveal his political plans.

“What unites us is stronger than what divides us,” he said. “The time has come to listen to others.”