Naftali Bennett has also said that a new government is needed to fight the coronavirus.
By GIL HOFFMANIsraeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Alternate Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Benny Gantz hold a press conference in Tel Aviv on July 27, 2020.(photo credit: TAL SHAHAR/POOL)
Blue and White has enough support to enable the formation of a new government with the current Knesset without initiating an election sources in the party revealed on Thursday.The sources would not reveal how it is possible to form a government without Likud, but they said conversations with representatives of parties indicated that despite public denials, party leaders are willing to take steps to build a new coalition.Blue and White leader Benny Gantz has been threatening Likud to end the current government if the 2021 state budget is not passed by the end of the year. He has said it would be clear whether the budget is on the way to passage by the beginning of November.But sources in Blue and White said it was unlikely that a decision would be made next week, first because they are waiting for the results of the American election and then because they do not want to be seen as dragged into a move by opposition leader Yair Lapid. Lapid’s Yesh Atid-Telem faction is proposing a bill to dissolve the Knesset and initiate elections on Wednesday.One complication to forming a government in the current Knesset is that Yamina, Derech Eretz and Blue and White MK Michal Cotler-Wunsh all oppose a minority coalition backed by the Joint List. Cotler-Wunsh said a broad, consensus government is necessary to deal with the current crises, and the Joint List does not back Israel remaining both a Jewish and democratic state.“We will not be partners to a putsch supported by [Joint List MK] Heba Yazbak or dark political maneuvers,” Yamina said. “One abomination should not be replaced by another. We should go to elections and replace the failed Netanyahu–Gantz government with a new government led by Naftali Bennett.”Bennett himself said on Thursday that a new government is needed to fight the coronavirus.“With proper management, a third lockdown could be avoided,” he said. “If the government has surrendered, it should clear the way for those who can get the job done.”Other sources in Blue and White said they believed that Netanyahu will back down on the budget issue and prevent an election in time due to his legal issues and the risk of complications fighting the coronavirus in the winter. They said the votes of Joint List MKs against the deals with UAE and Bahrain were further proof that the Joint List cannot be a partner in any way.A new poll taken for The Jerusalem Post and Maariv found that if an election would be held now, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud would win 28 seats, Yamina 21, Yesh Atid-Telem 17, the Joint List 12, Blue and White 10, Shas and Yisrael Beytenu nine each, United Torah Judaism eight and Meretz six.The Panels Research poll of 541 respondents representing a statistical sample of the adult Israeli population was taken Wednesday and had a margin of error of 4.4%.
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