I’ve done it: Netanyahu secures a deal to form new govt

Israel’s longest-serving Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu said that he has secured a deal to form a new government after weeks of tough negotiations with far-right coalition partners. Netanyahu informed President Isaac Herzog Wednesday  night in a phone call that he has managed to form a government. Minutes before a midnight deadline to form a coalition set by the Israel President, Netanyahu announced through Twitter that he was able to establish a government that will work for the benefit of all Israeli citizens. Netanyahu’s conservative Likud and like-minded religious-nationalist parties won a comfortable majority in a November 1 election, promising him 64 of Parliaments’s 120 seats. But agreement to form a government was held up by disputes over issues ranging from planning authority in the West Bank to ministerial control over the police.
The new government - which Netanyahu must now present within a week - will take office after a year that has seen the worst levels of violence in the West Bank in more than a decade. Netanayhu has pledged to govern in the interest of all citizens in Israel. The veteran leader, who returns after serving a record 15 years in top office, is on trial for corruption charges he denies. In line with Israeli law, Netanyahu was also set to inform Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin, who will announce the development during Monday’s legislative session. After that, Netanyahu will have seven days to swear in his government, although party sources say it is likely to happen before the January 2 deadline. As per the Times of Israel report, the change in government marks a major shift in tone from Israel’s outgoing, big-tent coalition led by prime ministers Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett, whose cross-spectrum coalition united in 2021 to drive out Netanyahu after a 12-year run in power. While all of Israel’s Zionist Knesset parties agree with the country’s self-conception as a Jewish and democratic state, the definitions of “Jewish” and “democratic” are a major dividing line between the incoming coalition and its predecessor.