Israel's Netanyahu fights to block opposition parties from taking power
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies on Monday worked furiously to keep opposition parties from forming a government that would displace him from Israel's top political job for the first time in more than 12 years.
Netanyahu supporters slammed right-wing parties planning to join the broad-based coalition as “traitors,” picketed their homes and issued threats that led police to provide additional security to at least two of the targeted politicians.
The pressure came as members of the coalition finalized their agreement to form a power-sharing government that would include former Netanyahu allies, centrists and liberals, and even the indirect support of an Arab-Islamist party. The arrangement, which could come up for a vote by the full parliament within the week, would potentially end more than two years of political stalemate in which no faction has been able to secure a governing majority after four inconclusive elections.
Negotiators for the anti-Netanyahu parties achieved a breakthrough Sunday when former defense minister and Netanyahu ally Naftali Bennett announced he was joining the “change coalition” being assembled by former TV news anchor and centrist politician Yair Lapid. In exchange for his Yamina Party’s six Knesset seats, Bennett would become Israel’s prime minister for a set number of years before Lapid takes over for a turn of his own, according to reports on the agreements in Israeli media.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/opposition-parties-could-oust-netanyahu/2021/05/31/6974eecc-be56-11eb-922a-c40c9774bc48_story.html
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