PM said to seek Haredi support as he considers calling new elections
Netanyahu waiting on answer from ultra-Orthodox lawmakers before deciding whether to break apart coalition, according to Channel 2
Stuart Winer is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may dissolve the government in coming weeks if he can garner guarantees from two ultra-Orthodox parties to support him in a new coalition after elections, Channel 2 reported Wednesday night.
The prime minister, currently battling a possible coalition crisis over a controversial nationality bill, asked the opposition Shas and United Torah Judaism factions to commit to supporting him — both in the formal, post-election recommendations party chiefs make to the president on who should form a coalition, and in joining him in a new government.
Should the bid fail, Netanyahu will be forced to seek a deal to keep the current coalition alive with the Yesh Atid and Hatnua parties, both of whose leaders have threatened to leave the government over the “Jewish state” bill, according to the Channel 2 report.
Netanyahu reportedly originally proposed that the ultra-Orthodox parties sign on their support publicly, but after both factions refused he suggested that they privately pledge their allegiance instead.
So far, neither party has responded but an answer to the offer is expected in the coming days, the report said.
Following a general election the party leader who has the widest support is given first chance at forming a coalition.
The nationality bill, which would enshrine Israel’s character as a Jewish state in Israel’s de facto constitution, has come under harsh criticism from opposition lawmakers, as well as Hatnua leader Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, and Yesh Atid head Finance Minister Yair Lapid.
Netanyahu has vowed to push the measure through, saying that it would guarantee equal rights for the country’s citizens and put Israel’s democratic and Jewish characters on equal footing.
Critics say the law is undemocratic to Israel’s Arab and other minority populations. A stormy cabinet meeting on the bill at the beginning of the week saw Livni accuse Netanyahu of backing the legislation as a move to try and pry apart the coalition so that he can call elections.
Netanyahu firmly defended the bill in a Knesset speech on Wednesday, but also stressed that it was his own text of the bill that he would seek to advance, a softened version of the texts Livni and Lapid have opposed, leaving a possible door open for them to back it.
Channel 2 suggested that a week-long delay on a preliminary vote on the bill, which is slated to be voted on next Wednesday, may have been orchestrated by Netanyahu in order to first get a response from the Haredi parties.
On Wednesday, Shas party leader Areyh Deri announced his two must-have conditions for joining a future government — the removal of a sales tax from basic household items rather than removing the tax from apartment purchases, and regulating the minimum wage to be NIS 30 ($7.70) an hour, the Haredi website Kikar Hashabbat reported.
Rumors of pre-election maneuvering have circulated in recent weeks, including a report that Lapid had approached the ultra-Orthodox parties with offers to join them in forming a new coalition.
The Haredi parties were blocked out of the coalition following the January 2013 elections that saw Netanyahu able to form a majority government without them. New elections could offer an opportunity for the ultra-Orthodox factions to find a way back in to power.
Lapid, who championed lowering the cost of living in his pre-election campaign, has pushed for canceling tax on some apartment purchases to help young couples buy their first home.
