ByAnshel Pfeffer, Anshel Pfeffer
1 min read
ByAnshel Pfeffer, Anshel Pfeffer
Israel's 20th Knesset was sworn in on Tuesday. But, as the 120 members - a third of them first-timers - were settling in, the country was still some distance from having a new government.
Benjamin Netanyahu has already used a week and a half of the four-week period he has to form a coalition. If he fails, he will receive two additional weeks from President Reuven Rivlin.
Likud is officially negotiating with the five other parties that recommended Mr Netanyahu for prime minister but it seems to have reached an agreement with only one - United Torah Judaism (UTJ). The party will have control of the health ministry, chair the key Knesset finance committee and a deputy minister in the Education Ministry.
These positions will ensure that UTJ can reverse the budget cuts made by the previous government to Charedi education. It will also be able to ensure that the national service law will not criminalise yeshivah students who refuse the draft.
On all other fronts, the coalition talks have bogged down. Likud's largest prospective partner, Kulanu, which won 10 seats, has already been promised the Finance Ministry for its leader Moshe Kahlon, but they are demanding additional powers to carry out widespread reforms.
Kulanu has already grudgingly agreed to the finance committee going to UTJ, but is insisting that the planning authority - necessary, it claims, for any major changes in housing policy - be separated from the Interior Ministry.
Shas leader, Arye Deri, who is expecting to be appointed interior minister (though such an appointment would be challenged in the Supreme Court on account of his conviction for bribe-taking), steadfastly opposes any reduction in his potential powers.
Meanwhile, talks with Habayit Hayehudi are at a standstill, with leader Naftali Bennett demanding the Defence, Education and Religious Affairs ministries. Avigdor Lieberman is also demanding Defence, but Likud negotiators have made it clear that, since the two leaders head parties with only eight and six seats respectively, such senior positions are out of the question.
In addition, the religious affairs portfolio, with its control of budgets and rabbis, is also sought after by Shas.
The slow pace of the talks has sparked suspicion that Mr Netanyahu is considering a coalition with Labour leader Isaac Herzog. Both Likud and Labour have denied there are any such talks but the two would not need to go through official channels. There is no shortage of brokers, including former justice minister Yaakov Neeman, who is a close confidant of Mr Netanyahu and the senior partner of the law firm where Mr Herzog briefly worked.
The PM has repeatedly ruled out a coalition with Mr Herzog; he is now doing nothing to dispel the rumours.
Whatever his plans, he wants all his partners to feel he can do without them.
