Just 30 minutes before a midnight deadline was to elapse, Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid officially informed President Reuven Rivlin that he would be able to get the Knesset's confidence and swear in a government, thus potentially unseating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a rotation deal with Yamina leader Naftali Bennett.
This means that the so-called "change coalition", which is based on left-wing parties as well as right-wing factions and lawmakers that had parted ways with Netanyahu, have – at least on paper – enough votes in the Knesset to win a plenum vote that would end the premiership of Israel's longest-serving prime minister, who has been in power for more than 12 consecutive years on top of another three years in the 1990s. But Netanyahu still has time to place various obstacles in their path before a vote is held and potentially even convince enough MKs in the "change coalition" to vote against it, thus denying a swearing-in.
Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid and Yamina leader Naftali Bennett have joined forces and agreed to rotate the premiership between them. Bennett, from the Right, will go first, and Lapid, who calls himself a centrist, will then serve for the remaining two years.
As of 11 p.m., with less than an hour before the midnight deadline to announce that they had completed the move, virtually all stumbling blocs had been removed as parties signed their coalition deals with Lapid.
Ra'am, the kingmaker Arab party, made the sealing of the deal possible after it agreed to sign on the bloc very late on Wednesday, all but ensuring that Lapid would meet the deadline. Shortly afterward Lapid sealed the remaining deals and informed the president that he had met the requirements of the law, 28 days after he had been tasked with forming a government.
However, Netanyahu still has about a week to try to undo the gains by his opponents, and if he succeeds, there could be a scenario in which a confidence vote fails, potentially reigniting the political crisis that had plagued the country for two years, all but ensuring that a fifth election is held.
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Bennett and his deputy Ayelet Shaked have come under heavy pressure from Netanyahu and the country's right-wing base not to join his opponents. The Knesset, or parliament, has assigned additional security guards to both in recent days because of death threats and online incitement.
Netanyahu's Likud won the most seats in the March 23 election, but not enough outright with his allies. He was tasked by the president with the mandate to form a government but that 28-day period ended with no new coalition. This resulted in Lapid getting the mandate so that he could try to cobble together a government.
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