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JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would make an ultimate effort on Sunday to avert the collapse of a coalition government weakened by the resignation of his defense minister. .
PHOTO FILE: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Attends Israeli Prime Minister David Ben Gurion's Annual Commemorative Ceremony at His Grave Site in Sde Boker, Israel, November 14, 2018. REUTERS / Ronen Zvulun / File Photo
Netanyahu, leader of the right-wing Likud party, was to meet later in the day with his finance minister, who heads a coalition coalition.
Minister Kheon Kahlon of the center-right Kulanu will urge Netanyahu to quickly fix the election date, Kulanu officials said.
The resignation of Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, announced on Wednesday over what he described as a lenient government policy in the face of the resurgence of cross-border violence with Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, left the government with majority of a seat in parliament.
This put the fate of Netanyahu's coalition at the mercy of one of its partners, who saw the quadrennial prime minister's popularity win a rare success in an opinion poll showing that Israelis were not unhappy with him in Gaza.
Netanyahu described his planned meeting with Kahlon as "one last attempt to prevent the collapse of the government".
Speaking to his cabinet on Sunday, Netanyahu said it would be "unnecessary and unjustified to go to the polls during this delicate period for our security."
ROCKETS, AIR RAILS
Kahlon told the Hadashot TV newspaper Saturday that it was impossible to form a coalition with only 61 seats out of 120.
Kahlon's appeal was echoed by members of the Jewish nationalist house, whose leader, Naftali Bennett, asked Lieberman to succeed as chief of defense, but Netanyahu refused on Friday.
On Sunday, Israeli media said Netanyahu was now ready to offer the job to Bennett to keep the Jewish home in the coalition.
Such an initiative, according to unconfirmed reports, would also seek to compel Kahlon to take into account the risks to his own party, which is also courting the courts in front of nationalist voters, as the main factor behind the fall of the right-wing government.
A poll released Wednesday by Hadashot shows that the Likud rose from 30 to 29 parliamentary seats after months of polls that showed it was gaining power.
Only 17 percent of respondents were satisfied with Netanyahu's policy towards Gaza, in which he accepted a ceasefire – dubbed by Lieberman's "surrender" – after activists in his ruling group , Hamas, launched nearly 500 rockets in Israel on Monday and Tuesday air raids.
Netanyahu's chances of re-election could also be affected by a series of corruption prosecutions in which the Israeli Attorney General charges his charges.
An election would complicate measures promised by the United States to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts that collapsed in 2014. The Trump government announced that it would soon unveil a peace plan.
Additional reports by Maayan Lubell; Edited by Andrew Heavens
