Skip to main content

New Israeli Govt. Seals Coalition Deals as Netanyahu Era Approaches Its End

In this June 6, 2021, file photo, Naftali Bennett, Israeli parliament member from the Yamina party, gives a statement at the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem. (AP)


The new Israeli government set to end Benjamin Netanyahu’s 12-year tenure as prime minister signed its final coalition agreements on Friday, pointedly including term limits.

The coalition of parties from far-right to left is expected to focus mostly on economic and social issues rather than risk exposing internal rifts by trying to address major diplomatic issues such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving leader, will be succeeded on Sunday by a coalition that includes for the first time a party from Israel’s Arab minority, Reuters reported.

Under a power-sharing agreement, Naftali Bennett, of the ultra-nationalist Yamina (Rightwards) party, will serve as prime minister for two years.

Bennett on Friday said the coalition “brings to an end two and a half years of political crisis,” although it was unclear how long the coalition’s disparate elements would hold together.

He will then hand over to Yair Lapid of the centrist Yesh Atid (There is a Future) party.

Among the agreements outlined by parties in what Lapid described as a “unity government” are:

•Limiting the prime minister’s term of office to two terms, or eight years.

•An infrastructure push to include new hospitals, a new university and a new airport.

•Passing a two-year budget to help stabilize the country’s finances — the prolonged political stalemate has left Israel still using a pro-rated version of a base 2019 budget that was ratified in mid-2018.

•Maintaining the “status-quo” on issues of religion and state, with Bennett’s Yamina party to have a veto. Possible reforms include breaking up an ultra-Orthodox monopoly on overseeing which foods are kosher, and decentralizing authority over Jewish conversions.

•An “overall plan for transportation” in the Israeli- occupied West Bank.

•A general goal to “ensure Israel’s interests” in areas of the West Bank under full Israeli control.

•Allocating more than 53 billion shekels ($16 billion) to improve infrastructure and welfare in Arab towns, and curbing violent crime there.

•Decriminalizing marijuana and moving to regulate the market.

After a quarter-century at the highest levels of Israeli politics, no one expects the 71-year-old Netanyahu, dubbed the “King of Israel” by his supporters, to quietly retire to his private home in the seaside town of Caesarea.

As opposition leader and the head of the largest party in parliament, Netanyahu is expected to continue doing everything in his power to bring down the government.

His best hope for avoiding conviction on serious corruption charges is to battle them from the prime minister’s office, with a governing coalition that could potentially grant him immunity. But his domineering presence could continue to bind his opponents together.
Labels:
Location: İsrail

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

US to Take Steps against White Supremacists and Militia Groups

A helicopter flies above the US Capitol during the dress rehearsal ahead of US President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration in Washington, US, January 18, 2021. Rod Lamkey/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo Five months after the attack on the US Capitol, the Biden administration on Tuesday will unveil new steps to combat the "elevated threat" posed by domestic terrorism, but will not - for now - seek legislation to battle home-grown threats. Instead, in a national strategy to be publicly unveiled by US Attorney General Merrick Garland, the administration is seeking increased information sharing, additional resources to identify and prosecute threats, and new deterrents to prevent Americans from joining dangerous groups, Reuters reported. The new approach comes after the administration conducted a sweeping assessment earlier this year of domestic terrorism that labeled white supremacists and militia groups as top national security threats. The issue took on new urgency after the Jan....
Post a Comment
Read more

G7 to Provide 1 bn Covid Vaccine Doses 'to World’

A meeting of finance ministers from across the G7 nations ahead of the G7 leaders' summit, at Lancaster House in London, Britain June 4, 2021. Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire/Pool via REUTERS G7 leaders will agree to expand global Covid vaccine manufacturing to provide at least one billion doses to the world through sharing and financing schemes, Britain said Thursday. The announcement came after the United States said it would donate 500 million jabs to 92 poor and lower-middle-income nations. The UK, which is hosting the big powers' gathering in southwest England, added it would donate at least 100 million surplus doses within the next year, including five million beginning in the coming weeks. The commitments follow growing calls for richer countries to step up their efforts to share Covid-19 shots with less developed nations, with charities warning the current situation is leading to "vaccine apartheid". Britain, which has orders for more than 400 million doses, has faced...
Post a Comment
Read more

China Urges NATO to Stop Exaggerating 'China Threat Theory'

The Chinese flag is raised in front of the China Pavilion during a flag raising ceremony at the Shanghai World Expo site in Shanghai April 30, 2010. (Reuters) China's mission to the European Union urged NATO on Tuesday to stop exaggerating the "China threat theory" after the group's leaders warned that the country presents "systemic challenges". NATO leaders on Monday had taken a forceful stance towards Beijing in a communique at United States President Joe Biden's first summit with the alliance. "China's stated ambitions and assertive behavior present systemic challenges to the rules-based international order and to areas relevant to alliance security," NATO leaders had said. The new US president has urged his fellow NATO leaders to stand up to China's authoritarianism and growing military might, a change of focus for an alliance created to defend Europe from the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The NATO statement "slandered...
Post a Comment
Read more