Yamina leader Nafatlia Bennett stressed on Tuesday that he would not disavow his "principled national stance" just in order to form a government that would unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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Bennett ruled out Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid's offer to join the anti-Netanyahu camp and ask President Reuven Rivlin to give the presidential task of forming a new government to someone else. Lapid had even offered that Bennett would serve as prime minister for half of the prospective term in a power-sharing deal, but Bennett made it clear on Tuesday that "I will not stand at the helm of a left-wing government; you might not know any politician who would give up the opportunity of being prime minister, but I am willing to do just that."
"I did not lie in my campaign, and I will not lie now. What is right for Israel is that we have a stable government that would prevent a fifth election that would take us down a chaotic and hateful path; Israel needs a government that would reflect the Israeli electorate's spectrum of opinions, meaning, a right-wing agenda, because Israelis are largely right-wing, this is what the people want."
On Tuesday, President Rivlin tasked Netanyahu with forming a government, having received the most endorsements in the 120-member Knesset. However, Netanyahu has the daunting task of swearing in a government through a confidence vote and he may very well come up short of the necessary plurality that would allow him to swear in a government.
This would result in Rivlin potentially assigning someone else with forming a government. However, without one of the right-wing parties crossing over to the Left, that too is likely to fail, paving the path for yet another election.
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