Top Likud officials on Monday seemed to be coming to terms with the possibility that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be unable to form a government, a move that would either exile Likud to the benches of the opposition or spell another general election – Israel's fifth in two years.
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Likud faction chief MK Miki Zohar told members of the Arrangements Committee, which oversees parliamentary work until such time as the new government is formed, that "We understand that we are on the way to the opposition.
"Netanyahu will lead the opposition. We will go with our heads held high," he said, adding a remark meant for current opposition MKs: "Believe me, we're not going to go easy on you."
Some Likud figures suggested Sunday that given the prime minister's slim chances of forming a government, he should not wait for the 28 days afforded to him to form a coalition and inform President Reuven Rivlin that he will be unable to do so.
Rivlin will then have the choice between tasking another MK – most likely Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid – with trying to cobble together a coalition or giving the Knesset the mandate to do so.
The comments, made more frequently by right-wing officials over the past few days, followed a dramatic evening in parliament, which saw Netanyahu's rivals deliver him a stinging defeat in a crucial vote for control of the Arrangements Committee.
Yesh Atid and the Islamist Ra'am party were able to torpedo a Likud bill that would have given control of the committee and, by extension, control over issues such as the interim – and possibly permanent – make up of key Knesset committees.
Sinking the bill essentially allows the so-called "pro-change" block of Center-Left parties to determine the legislative agenda in the new parliament until a new government is formed.
Ra'am abstained in the vote on the makeup of the Arrangements Committee, which saw a 60 to 50 vote wrestle control of the form from Likud's hands. The committee will now comprise of 16 Center-Left MKs, 14 rg MKs, 2 Yamina lawmakers and one MK for Ra'am.
According to Hebrew media reports, Lapid and Ra'am leader Mansour Abbas agreed to the plan during an earlier meeting in the day at the Knesset.
In exchange for Abbas' support, Lapid is said to have agreed to give Ra'am a spot on the Knesset's Finance Committee, a deputy Knesset speaker position for one of its lawmakers, and to chair a committee on combating violence in the Arab community, if he forms a government.
Following the defeat, Religious Zionist Party leader Bezalel Smotrich, who has refused to endorse any Netanyahu-led government that includes Ra'am decrying it as the "Right's suicide," tweeted that the move underscored why a future right-wing government cannot count on the support of the Islamist party.
"The truth is, we're lucky this happened now and not in the middle of a [military] operation in Gaza," he wrote. "If you rely on terrorist sympathizers, don't be surprised when they turn on you."
Abbas later told MKs that he "will not tolerate this humiliation from Smotrich anymore."
Abbas confirmed Tuesday that he was meeting with officials from the Center-Left parties, but stressed that his party's support was "in no one's pocket. ... We kept the option of being the ones who can tip the scale. We're here to serve Arab society and we won't be a punching bag and the object of blood libels. "
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