The Israeli opposition finalizes a government pact to evict Netanyahu from power

The Israeli opposition is preparing to close a pact this Sunday to form a broad coalition government with the central objective of ousting the prime minister, the right-wing Benjamin Netanyahu, 71, who has held office since 2009. opposition, the conservative Naftali Bennett has summoned the media in the Knesset (Parliament) at 8:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m., Spanish peninsular time) predictably to announce an agreement reached with centrist leader Yair Lapid, between seven opposition parties that will govern with the external support of two Arab political forces.

If the new government finally forges and ends the era of Netanyahu at the helm of Israel, the Cabinet will have to grapple with the weakness that comes with its own diversity - with hitherto antagonistic forces - and develop a pragmatic and consensus program, focused on the economic recovery after the pandemic and the consolidation of the ceasefire that ended the recent escalation of the war in the Gaza Strip. The political analysts of the Hebrew press do not predict long duration. The most sensitive issues, such as the peace negotiations with the Palestinians or the impositions of the Jewish religious authorities on civil society, will have to be forcibly put on the back burner.

Netanyahu has maneuvered throughout the day to try to regain the support of Yamina's nationalists, led by former Minister Bennett, and of Nueva Esperanza, a right-wing party led by former Minister Gideon Saar.

He has offered to both preside in turn a Cabinet of the united right, with three visible heads.

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Both have flatly rejected the last minute offer. Saar, who broke with the discipline of the prime minister's party a year ago, bluntly: "Our position has not changed, we are going to end Netayahu's mandates." Bennett, 49, summoned his parliamentary group before confirming with the support of all his deputies that he was heading "towards a Government of change", as the alternative coalition of almost all the opposition is called in Israel, as the only alternative to the convocation of the fifth general elections.

Taking up the challenge of forming a government in Israel three weeks ago, after Netanyhau failed in a first attempt, Lapid, offered preference when occupying the position of prime minister to Bennett, who doubles the number of seats in the Knesset. , in order to put an end to more than two years of political blockade in which four legislative elections have taken place.

Lapid is a secular radical who advocates the two-state solution to the conflict with the Palestinians. However, Bennett is a religious right-winger, a supporter of the annexation to Israel of much of the West Bank, and has traditionally been attached to the Netanyahu bloc, along with the ultra-Orthodox and the far right. To convince him to join a coalition with the left and backed by the Arab parties, the centrist leader had to give him the leadership of the Government in the first place, while he reserved the portfolio of Foreign Affairs. In 2023, in the middle of the legislature, both would have to rotate their positions, if a deal is finally closed.

After six years of strategy of uncompromising opposition to Netanyahu, Lapid now offers a profile of consensus and restraint. He left the Executive of the Likud leader - in which he served as finance minister between 2013 and 2015 - and challenged him five times at the polls.

The leader of the Yesh Atid party (there is a future) has behind him his own party, three conservative splinter formations of the Likud (including Bennett's), the Labor Party, Meretz (pacifist left) and the deputies of the Joint List and Maan (Arab coalitions representing the main Israeli minority, with 20% of the population). Before Wednesday, when the deadline for him to form a government expires, he will have to confirm to the President of the State of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, that he is standing for the inauguration with a chance of success. Otherwise, the timer will start running for the call for new elections in autumn.