Rivlin’s legal adviser rejects challenge to Bennett becoming prime minister
The heads of Yesh Atid, Yamina, and New Hope are meeting at Ramat Gan’s Kfar Hamaccabiah Hotel on Tuesday, in an effort to work out their remaining differences ahead of Wednesday night’s deadline for Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid to form a government.
Yamina MK Ayelet Shaked and MK Ze’ev Elkin from New Hope are also participating, as are representatives of Ra’am (United Arab List.)
Benny Gantz’s Blue and White Party also sent its negotiating team.
A Yamina spokesman said negotiating teams worked all night on their plans for a unity government and made significant progress.
Lapid must tell President Reuven Rivlin that he can form a government by Wednesday night at 11:59 p.m. or the mandate will return to the Knesset and then any MK would be able to build a coalition with the support of 61 MKs. Once Lapid makes his declaration to Rivlin, there will be seven days to hold a vote of confidence in the Knesset.
Knesset speaker Yariv Levin (Likud) said he would only decide the timetable for the vote after Lapid visits Rivlin, but Likud sources said Levin would consult with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and they were very likely to decide to postpone the vote until the last day permitted by law in order to put more pressure on Yamina.
The Likud wrote the legal adviser of the President’s Residence, Udit Corinaldi-Sirkis, on Tuesday, questioning whether Yamina leader Naftali Bennett could be permitted to form a government during the mandate of Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid.
Corinaldi-Sirkis responded that by law, the Knesset member entrusted with forming a government can serve as alternate prime minister, as Lapid will.
Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman told participants at the Bar Association conference in Eilat on Tuesday afternoon that “I believe that with good will it is possible to conclude the negotiations and tell the president that the government can be formed.”
Liberman warned that due to the threats to Bennett and Shaked he sees “happening what everyone saw happen in the Capitol in Washington.”
Likud faction chairman Miki Zohar called Liberman’s statement a wild exaggeration.
“There won’t be anything like what happened at the Capitol,” he told the Knesset Channel. “We will respectfully go to the opposition.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Liberman mocked the Likud, noting that Netanyahu himself offered a rotation of three party leaders as prime minister on Sunday.”
This is either a joke or just shameful,” Liberman said.
The Likud also asked Corinaldi-Sirkis to require Lapid to tell the president the make-up of the coalition, whether it will be an alternating government, and who will serve as alternate prime minister. Corinaldi-Sirkis accepted that request.
The goal of the Likud was to clarify whether the Islamist Ra’am (United Arab List) Party of MK Mansour Abbas would officially be part of the coalition. Sources in Ra’am said the question of whether Ra’am would support the government from inside or outside the coalition would be made by the party’s institutions and the Shura Council of the Southern Islamic Movement.
JERUSALEM POST