Netanyahu faces marathon coalition talks to defuse crisis

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned from China on Thursday to an escalating political crisis over the launch of a new public broadcasting corporation next month that has threatened to bring down his government.

Netanyahu has reportedly vowed 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 “Kan” replacement broadcaster by April 30.

The prime minister was expected to hold marathon meetings on Thursday with Kahlon and other ministers in a bid to resolve the tensions. But according to a report in the Haaretz daily on Thursday, Netanyahu has not yet scheduled the talks, and has not updated his liaisons in the negotiations, Communications Minister Tzachi Hanegbi and Tourism Minister Yariv Levin.

A long-simmering crisis escalated Saturday evening when Netanyahu backtracked on his agreement with Finance Minister Moshe 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.

Netanyahu’s threat sent his coalition into turmoil, including ministers in his own party who have been coming out publicly against new elections.

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.

The Shas minister told Channel 2 he spoke with coalition party leaders, including Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman of Yisrael Beytenu and Naftali Bennett of Jewish Home, on Sunday. He said that on Thursday, the coalition leaders would meet and “won’t leave the room until a solution is found.”

On Monday, reports from sources close to Netanyahu and Kahlon said a compromise was in the works that would see the current top management of the new broadcaster — criticized by Netanyahu as “left-wing” — replaced. But early on Tuesday, officials negotiating in Netanyahu’s name, including Levin and coalition chairman MK David Bitan, received word from the prime minister that he opposed all compromises that left the new corporation intact.

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 corporation’s decision to hire veteran news anchor Geula Even has 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 lose 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.