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JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will make a televised statement Sunday after an ultimate effort to avert the fall of a coalition government weakened by the resignation of his defense minister.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting in his office in Jerusalem on October 28, 2018. Oded Balilty / Pool via REUTERS
Netanyahu, leader of the right-wing Likud party, has met with coalition partners in recent days, some of whom have called for early elections. Political experts predict that an instant vote could be held as early as March, instead of November as planned.
Netanyahu's office said it would make a statement to reporters at 8 pm. (1800 GMT), without giving details.
The remarks will follow a meeting between Netanyahu and his finance minister, Moshe Kahlon of the center-right Kulanu party, which urged setting a date for the early elections.
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 its partners, who saw the quadrennial prime minister's popularity win a rare success in an opinion poll showing that the Israelis were not satisfied with him about Gaza.
Netanyahu described his planned meeting with Kahlon as "one last attempt to prevent the collapse of the government".
Addressing his cabinet on Sunday, he said that it would be "pointless and wrong to go to the elections 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 showed that the Likud went from 30 seats in parliament to 29 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 Monday air raids.
Netanyahu's chances of re-election could also be affected by a series of corruption prosecutions in which the Attorney General of Israel 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 and Emelia Sithole-Matarise
