51 MKs nominate Netanyahu as coalition talks get underway

As coalition talks got underway Sunday, President Reuven Rivlin met with six political parties representing 88 Knesset seats, with a total of 51 MKs nominating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to lead the government.

Meeting with the Likud, Zionist Union, Joint (Arab) List, Jewish Home, Shas, and United Torah Judaism parties, Rivlin urged party members to form a broad, inclusive coalition able to withstand growing international pressure on the Jewish state.

“The political issues and the pressure that our best friends in Europe and the US will exert require a broad coalition in the upcoming Knesset,” the president said while meeting with the ultra-orthodox UTJ party.

UTJ MK Moshe Gafni, however, rebuffed the president’s wishes, saying his party would not be willing to sit with certain other parties, and said that if those unnamed parties were to join the coalition, United Torah Judaism — and its six seats — would head to the opposition.

Although Gafni did not mention the party by name, UTJ has long been at odds with Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party, which calls for the mandatory enlistment of ultra-Orthodox men and cuts to the welfare and social benefits that affect many in the ultra-Orthodox community.

The party, along with the Sephardic ultra-Orthodox Shas (seven seats), nominated Netanyahu to lead the government.

The Jewish Home party also nominated Netanayhu, fulfilling a campaign promise it made to its voters. The hard-right party affirmed its support for the prime minister’s leadership, calling for increased construction in the contested areas of the West Bank and Golan Heights.

MK Uri Ariel, leader of the hardline Tekumah faction within Jewish Home, dismissed reports that his faction would splinter if not offered the Housing Ministry, a position he retained in the last government, according to the right-wing Israel National News website.

Ariel and party chief Naftali Bennett were reported to be at odds following the election, as the two were involved in several well-documented spats. The Tekumah faction holds two of the party’s eight seats.

Following the meetings with Rivlin, Likud MK Tzipi Hotovely addressed the coalition negotiations, asserting the Likud’s need to hold onto high-level ministerial posts while telling other parties to tone down their demands in the interest of securing a stable coalition.

“I am certain it’s of mutual interest to establish a lasting, strong and stable coalition, and for this the other sides need to lower their demands,” she said. “It’s important that key ministries such as the foreign, defense, and education [ministries] stay in the Likud.”

The Zionist Union and the Joint (Arab) List were the only two parties not to nominate Netanyahu on Sunday, with the Zionist Union’s 24 members nominating party leader Isaac Herzog center-left party and the Joint (Arab) List (13 seats) opting to not nominate anyone, due to its rejection of Zionist parties.

Arab MKs demanded that the president force an apology from Netanyahu for his remarks on election day, when he warned in a statement that Arab citizens were voting “in droves,” in an effort to get out the right-wing vote. Arab lawmakers also said they would ask Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein to recommend that the prime minister be tried for his comments.

Rivlin, a fierce opponent of racism, apologized for the prime minister’s “hurtful” remarks and said that Israel underwent a “tempestuous and passion-filled” election campaign: “Now is the time to begin the process of mending and healing Israeli society.”

The president also rebuked the Joint (Arab) List due to a party activist’s likening of Zionism to the Islamic State, comments he called “unacceptable.”

Rivlin will meet with the remaining parties — Yesh Atid (11 seats), Kulanu (10 seats), Yisrael Beytenu (six seats), and Meretz (5 seats) — on Monday to further advance the coalition-building process. Coalition negotiations are expected to begin in earnest on Wednesday, after he tasks Netanyahyu with forming a government.

Times of Israel Staff contributed to this report.