Likud whip warns coalition crisis not over

Coalition chairman David Bitan on Saturday warned that if Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon does not agree to shut down the new public broadcasting corporation, the government will dissolve and elections will be held.

“The one who is going to elections is Kahlon,” Bitan told Channel 2. “If he does not agree (to shut down the new broadcaster) we will go to elections, yes.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly threatened to call early elections if his coalition refuses to cancel reforms advanced by his own Likud party that would shutter the Israel Broadcasting Authority and launch the replacement broadcaster, called “Kan,” by April 30.

Netanyahu’s threat sent his coalition into turmoil over the past week, with even ministers in his own Likud party coming out publicly against new elections.

Negotiations between Kahlon and Netanyahu’s liaisons, aimed at reaching a compromise regarding broadcasting policy that would stave off the prime minister’s threat, have failed to yield an agreement.

The long-simmering crisis escalated last week when Netanyahu backtracked on an agreement with Kahlon to launch the new public broadcasting corporation — set up through a law passed by his previous government in 2014 and slated to replace the old Israel Broadcasting Authority.

If Kahlon refused to scrap the new broadcaster, “we’ll go to elections,” Netanyahu was reported to have told Likud ministers at his home last Saturday.

Kahlon disagreed with nixing the new corporation, saying such a move would waste massive funds.

Earlier this week, Interior Minister Aryeh Deri said going to elections over the issue of the broadcaster would be “unforgivable” and that Netanyahu and coalition leaders would work to defuse the coalition crisis when the prime minister returned from China.

Netanyahu returned on Thursday, but was reportedly too ill to meet with coalition leaders to resolve the conflict.

Kahlon has dismissed the entire controversy as “just spin,” telling a conference on Tuesday that he had not spoken to the prime minister since Friday.

Hebrew media also reported Monday that the new corporation’s decision to hire veteran news anchor Geula Even had stiffened Netanyahu’s resolve to oppose the body. Even is married to Gideon Sa’ar, a former interior and education minister and a rising star in the Likud party until he resigned from political life in 2014. Sa’ar is widely expected to return to the Knesset at some point, possibly to run against Netanyahu for the premiership.

Likud officials have warned in recent days that the ruling party stood a good chance of losing a new election, as the current crisis would likely cost it the support of Kahlon’s party in any future coalition talks, while poll favorite Yesh Atid might be able to piece together a coalition with both right- and left-wing parties.

Also Saturday, opposition leader Isaac Herzog, referring to the coalition crisis and its political implications, said he was considering forming an alternative government. “There are over 61 MKs who want to oust Netanyahu, I have the names,” he said. “I can form a government without Yair Lapid, because I know how to make connections and build a bloc.”

Other politicians have repeatedly said they won’t form a new government under Herzog without elections.