Time running out for Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of Sunday’s crucial vote

Barring something spectacular happening before the vote, the curtain appears to be coming down on the Israeli leader’s premiership, reports Natalie Lisbona in Tel Aviv

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (AP)

As Benjamin Netanyahu’s political career hangs in the balance, those in his party have claimed they are doing all they can to prevent the coalition from forming a new government and bringing an end to his 12-year tenure as Israel’s prime minister.

Ahead of Sunday’s key vote of confidence at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in which 61 votes will be needed to usher in a new administration, the Likud Party lawmaker and close Mr Netanyahu ally Miki Zohar said: “We are going to do our best to prevent this coalition government from happening.”

“If we do end up in the opposition, we will soon see the difference between a right-wing government under Netanyahu and a left-wing one under Naftali Bennett as their prime minister,” he told The Independent.

“Netanyahu gave a lot to this country and people will realise that this government is better.

“We are not afraid to be in the opposition and will use all our democratic powers to remove this government. Netanyahu will be at the helm and all of his party around him united to ensure this will happen."

It has been a turbulent time for Israeli politics, and after four general elections in two years,  a loss of support for Mr Netanyahu’s bloc, and active corruption charges hanging over his head, Israelis are keen for political stability.

At the most recent elections, Mr Netanyahu failed to form a majority, so an attempt at forming a coalition government was eventually passed to the party with the second-highest number of votes, the centrist party Yesh Atid, under Yair Lapid.

In the aftermath of 11 days of deadly fighting with Hamas in the Gaza Strip last month, Mr Bennett and his Yamina Party finally agreed to join Mr Lapid in a coalition to oust Mr Netanyahu, who is the longest-serving Israeli prime minister, having been in power for 12 consecutive years, as well as an earlier three-year term.

Under the coalition’s plans, Mr Lapid and Mr Bennett will both share power, each serving as prime minister for two years, with Mr Bennett taking the first term.

The coalition is regarded as the broadest in the history of Israeli politics.

It includes the Israeli-Arab party Ra’am, the first in half a century to sign a deal to sit in a coalition government, and it will mean that there will be a deputy minister from an Arab party in the Prime Minister’s Office for the first time ever.

“The next coalition will be Israel’s first true unity government where Israeli citizens from all divides will be included – right-left, religious-secular, Jewish and Arab,” Jeremy Saltan, a member of Mr Bennett’s party and long-time ally, told The Independent.

“This will allow us to heal the nation from the negativity of four election campaigns in two years and start a new chapter in Israeli history.”

Although it has been thought by some that Mr Netanyahu, an astute politician, could come up with an eleventh-hour solution to halt the new coalition from forming, time is running out on his chances of that and seemingly his time in power.

The deal agreed between Yamina and Yesh Atid appears to make certain that there will be a new Israeli government by Sunday night.

“The Israeli public deserves a functioning and responsible government which places the good of the country at the top of its agenda,” said Mr Lapid. “That’s what this unity government has been formed to do. All the partners in this government are committed, first and foremost, to the people of Israel.”

The parties have committed to several policies for the new administration, including limiting the time any future prime minister can serve to eight years or two terms, closing several government ministries and freezing home-demolitions in the Negev region for nine months.

With time running out, Mr Netanyahu, the man who has dominated Israeli politics for the last decade, has lashed out.

Using a tactic apparently from the Donald Trump playbook, Mr Netanyahu told his party that they were “witnessing the biggest election fraud in the history of the country, in my opinion in the history of democracy”. He also claimed his defeat was down to a “deep state” conspiracy.

“I fear for the destiny of the nation,” he told one local TV station this week.