Israeli Politicsupdated 1h ago3 min read
Benjamin Netanyahu Meets Itamar Ben-Gvir to Thwart Blue and White-Change Minority Government
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Netanyahu met Ben-Gvir to thwart the Blue and White-Change minority government. He pledged to keep the right-wing bloc united with Smotrich and Ben-Gvir.
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Deadlock and coalition maneuvering
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with National Security Minister and Otzma Yehudit leader Itamar Ben-Gvir as Netanyahu sought to thwart the formation of a minority government led by the opposition Blue and White-Change bloc after parliamentary elections left neither bloc with an absolute majority in the Knesset. Channel 12 cited a source saying Netanyahu met with Ben-Gvir as part of attempts to prevent a minority government by the Change bloc, which sought to form an alternative governing coalition. Proposed stories reported that final vote tally showed Netanyahu’s bloc with 53 seats, the opposition Change bloc with 48, and 19 for Arab parties, leaving the president to appoint a party leader to try to form a majority government.
Yair Golan, head of the Democratic Union, announced his meeting with Gadi Eizenkot and revealed a meeting with Mansour Abbas, head of the United Arab List (Ra’am), and former opposition leader Yair Lapid. Golan wrote on X after his meeting with Eizenkot that "Israel’s salvation is at stake," as he said he sought to explore all options and work with different partners to form an alternative government.
Accusations over election legitimacy
Gadi Eisenkot and Arab-led party leaders denounced Netanyahu for alleging foreign interference following the election, and Netanyahu’s Likud accused Israel's Arab-led parties of "stealing" the election. The BBC reported that Shin Bet was investigating whether they received illegal funding from Qatar and Turkey, while Qatar's foreign ministry denied the "ridiculous and dangerous" allegations and accused Israeli politicians of conducting a disinformation campaign against Doha. Dean Livne, acting CEC Director General, said there was "no basis for allegations of systematic violations of election integrity," after the Central Elections Committee asked Shin Bet to investigate "serious suspicions" of foreign interference.
Eisenkot said "it is too early to determine what happened, or if anything happened at all," and he accused Netanyahu of running "an orchestrated and organized campaign to delegitimize the election results." Balad chairman Sami Abu Shehadeh dismissed the allegation, saying: "The losing side is constructing a racist blood libel and calling on the security agencies to use force in order to overturn the election results."
What is at stake next
The election results confirmed that neither Netanyahu's bloc nor the Jewish opposition had won a majority in parliament, and the BBC described a process in which the president appoints a leader with "up to 42 days" to form a government. The BBC said that if that nominee is unsuccessful, a period of 28 days is granted to a second nominee, and if that also fails, a period of 14 days is granted to a third candidate before new elections would be called. Yair Lapid urged the public to remain patient as negotiations continued behind the scenes, and he wrote that "So I need to ask you for something difficult to ask of Israelis: patience."
“So I need to ask you for something difficult to ask of Israelis: patience.”
Lapid said the anti-Netanyahu bloc received a combined 67 seats, while Netanyahu’s bloc received 53 seats, and he argued that Netanyahu had "no way to form a government" based on the election results. Golan repeated his call for Jewish-led opposition parties to work with Arab-led parties, arguing that "There are no conditional citizens in a democratic Israel," and he said a ballot cast by an Arab citizen in Sakhnin or in Rahat was "worth exactly as much" as a ballot cast by a Jewish citizen in Tel Aviv or Sderot.