Benjamin Netanyahu’s Last-Minute Government Puts Him in Tenuous Position
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Version 0 of 1. JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu led his conservative Likud Party to a major victory over its chief rival, the center-left Zionist Union, in the March 17 elections. But the fractured mosaic of Israeli politics has kept him from translating that victory into a solid grip on power. More than a month of tortuous negotiations has left Mr. Netanyahu leading an unstable governing coalition of right-leaning and religious parties with the slimmest possible majority, 61 seats in the 120-member Knesset, Israel’s parliament. And the situation has amplified calls for an overhaul of the Israeli political system to make the country’s elections more likely to yield clear and effective governing mandates. Here are some key factors that led to Mr. Netanyahu’s precarious position and that may shape what happens next. • Ten different parties or slates won seats in the Knesset, despite the recent increase in the vote threshold that a party must clear to qualify. Several predominantly Arab parties banded together on a single slate this time to make sure they reached the threshold. • Neither of the two biggest parties won more than one-quarter of the total seats. Likud won 30, and the Zionist Union — itself a coalition slate led by the Labor Party — won 24. So no majority was possible without the cooperation of several smaller parties with sharply differing agendas. • Mr. Netanyahu needed four other parties, two of them ultra-Orthodox, to cobble together his slender 61-vote majority. Each was in a position to drive a hard bargain for its support. Key cabinet posts went to coalition partners who are also Mr. Netanyahu’s political rivals. • The prime minister’s fractious relations with other party leaders complicated the process. A natural ally for Likud, the nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party with six seats, dropped out of coalition talks on Monday; its leader, Avigdor Lieberman, clashed repeatedly with Mr. Netanyahu as foreign minister. • The opposition is even less cohesive than the governing coalition, with five blocs ranging from the far left to Yisrael Beiteinu on the right. After the Zionist Union, the largest opposition bloc is the Arab Joint List with 13 seats. • Mr. Netanyahu is expected to try to broaden his coalition, most likely by luring Isaac Herzog, the Zionist Union leader, to join him in a “national unity” government. A spokesman for Likud suggested on Thursday that the post of foreign minister was being kept open for Mr. Herzog. But Mr. Herzog has shown little interest. • In the meantime, even a single defection from Mr. Netanyahu’s coalition on a budget vote or a no-confidence motion could bring his government down and precipitate a new election. His partners have few policy positions in common, so his scope for advancing major legislation will be sharply limited. • The outcome of the election has brought calls for significant changes to the political system. One set of proposals would give an automatic mandate to the leader of the party with the most Knesset seats, and make a sitting prime minister less vulnerable to being toppled. Others have suggested winnowing the number of small parties further by raising the threshold for seats in the Knesset again. |