Can Blue&White sign a deal with PM Netanyahu’s Likud while endorsing a new bill to forbid him to serve as PM? This feat of parlor trickery appears to be a major concern for the Likud party, as the clock continues to tick on the unity government talks.
As of Saturday night, Blue&White were ready to sign a unity coalition agreement with Likud, but told Kan 11 News: “We’ll have to see if the Likud will pile on new difficulties,” which has been the pattern of the talks for weeks now: the negotiation teams reach an agreement, Minister Yair Levin who heads the Likud team goes with the deal to Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu and the latter gives it back to him full of corrections and fresh demands. At least that’s how the Gantz side has been describing the process.
In any event, sources involved in the talks on both sides were saying on Friday that real progress had been made regarding the rotation bill, which was one of the key obstacles in reaching an agreement. Negotiations between Likud and Blue&White resume Sunday morning.
Meanwhile, senior members of the Likud negotiating team (meaning Yair levin) have threatened Blue&White that the minute they start working on an anti-Netanyahu bill, Likud is walking out and never coming back. They will blow the unity government negotiations and start a fourth election campaign in a little over a year.
According to the Likud team, “This is our red line, starting to work on Netanyahu laws means ending the unity negotiations.”
By “Netanyahu laws,” they refer to legislation that has already been initiated a number of times, presumably amending the Basic Law: The Government with a rule that an MK who faces a criminal indictment may not engage in establishing a coalition government, and, should this be a sitting prime minister, he or she must resign as soon as said indictments are filed with the court by the state prosecution.
It’s a nasty bit of anti-democratic legislation which presumes the PM to be guilty until proven innocent, inflicting on them the most severe political outcome of the case against them even before the court had held its first session.
Mind you, this already is the law regarding government ministers in Israel, who are compelled to resign their office as soon as they are indicted. This is why Netanyahu has already had to vacate all his government portfolios save for the top seat. It would be as if President Trump were compelled to hand over the White House to Mike Pence as soon as the Democratic House of Representatives had served him with an impeachment.
Yesh Atid MK Yoav Segalovich, whose previous job was head of the Police special investigations and intelligence division Lahav 433, whose mission is to put corrupt Israeli politicians behind bars, told Resht Bet radio Sunday morning that Benny Gantz did one round in attempting to push the Bibi-terminating legislation, before “going down waving a white flag.”
“He made a serious mistake,” the former anti-corruption cop said about Gantz. “He demolished the hopes of many people in this country. This looks like a negotiation among thieves.”
The fact is the left, the Arabs and Liberman really do have the power, even today, to write Netanyahu out of politics. Never mind that such a move stinks to high heaven of “personal legislation,” meaning a law that’s being enacted with one specific target in mind. Of course, in a country without a cohesive constitution, whose “Basic Laws” require a simple majority to pass, the sole arbiter of constitutional brawls is the High Court of Justice, and the High Court of Justice wants Netanyahu’s head in a basket.
It’s not clear how Likud would react should Blue&White attempt to have and eat the same cake: submit the bill to the Knesset, but not move on it, seeing as the Knesset’s agenda is governed by the Speaker, who happens to be one Benny Gantz. Will Likud accept this passive-aggressive gesture, which, in the end, is nothing short of a gun’s barrel pushed against Bibi’s temple?
Last time around, Likud crashed the negotiations table with an iron fist when Blue&White was moving to elect Yesh Atid’s MK Meir Cohen as the new Knesset Speaker. Such an appointment would have given Yesh Atid Boss Yair Lapid the power which Gantz now enjoys. He could shatter Likud’s hopes with a series of quickly-drawn anti-Netanyahu bills, based on Blue&White’s flimsy majority in the House.
So Likud threatened to blow up the talks and Gantz blinked first. He placed himself on the Knesset Speaker’s seat, a move that was followed by the loud crashing of the original Blue&White party. It was a Czech-magnitude capitulation which reversed everything and started Netanyahu’s climb back to the top, where the polls are now predicting his decisive victory in the fourth election – should anyone in Israel even care.
This bunch of Israelis cares: the Yesha Council settler movement’s senior officials are irate at the fact that the unity government coalition agenda does not seem to include any mention of the Netanyahu’s promised Israeli sovereignty over the Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley. It appears there are only two foundations to this coming emergency unity government: fighting the coronavirus and recovery from the economic consequences of the coronavirus. The sovereignty promises have, once again, been stashed away in the nice things to do some day box.
Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan, who accompanied Netanyahu on his last visit to the White House, when President Donald Trump declared Israel was free to impose its laws over parts of the liberated territories, on Sunday told Reshet Bet radio: “We will not accept a government without sovereignty. This is an opportunity not to be missed.”
Naah. There’ll be plenty more opportunities to miss.