Channel 12: Lapid’s first priority is sealing a deal with Ra’am

Channel 12’s political correspondent Daphna Liel sums up the “serious difficulties” facing the so-called change government as the clock ticks down to the midnight deadline:

“Yesh Atid is speaking with the various [potential] partners in an effort, despite it all, to finalize a government by [the deadline] tonight. The first priority is… to close an agreement with Ra’am that Yamina and New Hope can live with.

“Ra’am has hardened its positions in the past day, with Prime Minister Netanyahu’s encouragement. It’s not clear whether Netanyahu merely encouraged [Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas] to issue greater demands… or made promises to him… regarding the Kaminitz law [as relates to building in the Arab community]. Yesterday, they [the change bloc parties] were just an inch from finalizing with Ra’am.”

She adds that if the midnight deadline passes and Lapid cannot form a government, “the right hopes that two or three defectors” will enable a Netanyahu-led government, though it is not at all clear these will emerge.