Justice minister: ‘Netanyahu is next PM, but with what coalition?’

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked on Friday evening said she believed the next national elections would likely be held in March 2019, as the governing coalition appeared to be on the brink of collapse.

There were mixed messages Friday from Shaked’s Jewish Home party and from the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. While senior sources in the nationalist right-wing party told The Times of Israel the party would leave the government, triggering new elections, Netanyahu’s office insisted that talks between the coalition parties were still ongoing.

Netanyahu is said to have rejected Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett’s demand to be made defense minister in place of the resigning Avigdor Liberman in a Friday afternoon meeting between the two.

Elections are formally set for November 2019, but it is now expected they will be held between March and May, with Netanyahu pushing for a later date and other parties seeking an earlier one.

Netanyahu has said he will continue to try to preserve the right-wing coalition. He also made a series of telephone calls to coalition chiefs telling them there was no reason to dismantle the coalition at this stage.

Shaked said the Netanyahu-Bennett meeting was a “good” one and that “the prime minister even expressed willingness to discuss the defense portfolio.” But “when looking at the various considerations it appears it will be very difficult to hold on to a coalition of 61 MKs, with some of the current MKs.”

She alluded to a veto on Bennett’s appointment by Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, head of the Kulanu party. “Factions like Kulanu said they wanted to go to elections,” she said.

Channel 10 news political analyst Raviv Druker noted that Netanyahu, who had called party leaders to get their opinion on Bennett’s request, may have been banking on objections in order to avoid appearing to block the appointment himself.

Shaked criticized Yisrael Beytenu chief Liberman, who resigned as defense minister on Wednesday, saying he was ultimately responsible for sending the political world spinning towards early elections.

“Liberman decided to bring down the government, resign and demand elections… If this move has been forced upon us, then it’s better to hold the elections as soon as possible.”

Still, she expressed hope that “the same coalition more or less will form after the elections; that’s for the people and the public to decide.

“The polls are very clear: Netanyahu is the next prime minister. The question is what coalition will come together.”

By pulling his Yisrael Beytenu party out of the coalition, Liberman left the government with a narrow majority, with just 61 out of the 120 Knesset seats.

Shaked accused Liberman of running away from his responsibilities as defense minister. Liberman, when announcing his resignation, said his decision came in light of the ceasefire reportedly agreed on Tuesday between Israel and Palestinian terror groups in Gaza following an unprecedentedly fierce two-day barrage of over 400 rockets fired by Hamas and other terror groups toward Israel.

He called the truce “a capitulation to terror.”

Liberman, along with Bennett and two other ministers, reportedly opposed the ceasefire decision at the security cabinet deliberations.

Though she said she did not want to elaborate publicly on discussions in the security cabinet, Shaked said that “over the past few months our deterrence towards Hamas was definitely hurt, and we need to bring [it] back. This organization can be defeated.”

The Haaretz newspaper reported Friday that Netanyahu is hoping to delay the dissolution of the current government by at least a few more weeks in order to allow him to confirm the appointment of the next IDF chief of staff and Israel police chief, citing an associate of the premier.

Coalition sources also told Haaretz they believed the prime minister still hoped to make changes to election laws in order to lower the electoral threshold, though he made no mention of the matter during his conversations Friday with party leaders.

Meanwhile the left-wing Meretz party said it would bring a bill to the Knesset floor next week to immediately disband the Knesset.

“We need to dissolve the government and go to elections as soon as possible. The public has had enough of laws on loyalty and nationhood, incitement, antagonism and warmongering,” Meretz head Tamar Zandberg said. “Good riddance to a government that can offer nothing more.”

Raoul Wootliff contributed to this report.