JERUSALEM: Between the residence of the President of the State and the District Court of Jerusalem today began a day that has the elements of a real judgment day for the incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: at 9:00 am the trial phase of the trial that sees him accused of corruption, fraud and abuse of office, while, a few kilometers from the courtroom, President Reuven Rivlin began consultations with the parties for the formation of a new government, later in the elections of 23 March.
Coordination with the media
In her opening plea, with Netanyahu sitting in the dock, prosecutor Liat Ben Ari argued that “the prime minister of Israel abused his power by granting illegal benefits in coordination with the media to further his personal interests,” noting as “all are equal before the law, the great and the small, the rich and the poor, the powerful and the simple”. At the end of Ben Ari’s speech, the first testimony began, concerning the “Case 4000”, in which Shaul Alovitch, main shareholder of the telecommunications giant Bezeq, with whom, according to the indictment, Netanyahu would have negotiated coverage, is co-accused. positive media coverage on the information site “Walla!” – also owned by Alovitch – in exchange for government policies favorable to the company. The process, which is starting today after more than a year of postponements and procedural steps, will take place at a rate of three sessions a week. The testimony in progress is from Ilan Yeshua, CEO of Walla! during the period under review, and is expected to last a month. The judges exonerated Netanyhau from attending the hearings of Yeshua and the premier, at the end of the procurator’s harangue, left the courtroom.
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At the same time, the Likud delegation indicated to the president the name of Netanyhau as prime minister to be appointed for the formation of a government. Likud came out victorious from the polls with 30 seats and a significant detachment from the second party, Yesh Atid of the current opposition leader Yair Lapid, who got 17. However, at the moment Netanyahu can only count on 52 sure supports (16 of the ultra-Orthodox parties and 6 of the new formation of the extremist nationalist right of Betzalel Smotrich), therefore far from the 61 seats (out of 120) needed to form a majority.
Yesh Atid has indicated Yair Lapid as prime minister in charge, but not even his name collects sufficient consensus to reach 61, confirming the fragmentation of the opposition to Netanyhau and the political stalemate.
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The consultations will continue until 20:30 local time and all 13 parties that have crossed the threshold will be heard for 45 minutes.
The nationalist right and the Arab party of Mansour Abbas
Needle of the scales will be the only two parties that have not vetoed support for a new Netanyahu coalition: Naftali Bennett’s Yamina, a nationalist right that has detached itself from Smotrich’s more extremist fringes in recent months to present itself as a possible “digestible” force also from the center left, and Mansour Abbas’ Ra’am, the Arab party. In Netanyhau’s idyll, if he collects Bennett’s support, thus reaching 59 seats, Abbas’s external support would be enough to avoid fifth elections at least temporarily, with a minority government.
The reciprocal vetoes of the various parties make the situation intricate nonetheless. Without a premier indicated by 61 hands, President Rivlin specified at the opening of the consultations that he will confer the mandate “to the candidate with the greatest possibility of forming a coalition”, which would not necessarily coincide with the party that received the most seats. It is a prerogative that is conferred on them by law, but in Likud they scream scandal if this should happen, given the net advantage Netanyhau obtained at the polls. The president will ask the parties if there is an alternative candidate on which there would be no opposition if there were no conditions to appoint the name indicated. This eventuality could lead Naftali Bennett, with only 7 seats, to become a compromise agent: in the game of crossed vetoes he could be the only candidate with the best chance of forming a government and thus avoiding fifth elections.
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