Less than 12 hours before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's mandate to form a government expires at midnight Tuesday, Netanyahu's Likud party was debating about whether or not to recommend that President Reuven Rivlin hand the mandate to Yamina leader Naftali Bennett, rather than Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid.
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According to an opinion from Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit, the chairmanship of the Knesset Arrangement Committee falls to the party whose leader has been tasked with forming the government. This could lead to changes when it comes to appointments for committee chairpersons, control of the legislative process in the Knesset, and influence over laws targeting Netanyahu, as well as any proposed law to instate direct elections for prime minister.
Earlier, committee chairman Miki Zohar announces that he would convene the committee on Tuesday afternoon to discuss pushing several bills presented to the Knesset on Monday through the preliminary processes, so they could be brought to a vote on Wednesday. These include a law calling for direct elections for prime minister; a law calling for Israel to implement the death sentence for terrorists; a law that would ban illegal migrant from entering Israel; a law regarding appointments to the Supreme Court, and more.
According to officials in the Office of the President, Rivlin does not intend to hold another official round of consultations with party heads, according to officials in the Office of the President, who added that Bennett would not receive the president's mandate because "one bloc has already tried" to form a coalition and that the mandate would therefore transfer to Lapid.
"There won't be another round of consultations. Anyone who wants to change their position can do so. The president will get a picture of the situation based on what he sees in front of him," a senior official in the President's Residence told Israel Hayom.
Consequently, suspicions within the two main blocs have heightened. Lapid wants the president's mandate to prevent Bennett from trying to form a government with Netanyahu and the Right. Bennett, for his part, says he worked to shut down prospective talks with the anti-Netanyahu bloc.
One of the possible scenarios discussed on Monday was that the right-wing bloc would ask Rivlin to give the mandate to Bennett. In this scenario, Bennett would have 59 recommendations comprising the Likud, Yamina, the Religious Zionist party and the Haredi parties, against Lapid's 45 recommendations comprising Yesh Atid, Blue and White, Labor and Meretz. And even if New Hope chairman Gideon Sa'ar also asks the president to change his mandate, the anti-Netanyahu bloc will have only 51 mandates. The point of this idea is to allow Bennett to try forming a right-wing government, per his promise.
In discussions with the President's Residence, however, it was made clear that such a plan was out of the question and that the president was unlikely to give the mandate to Bennett because, from the president's perspective, any effort on Bennett's part to form a government with the Likud would be "more of the same" that has transpired over the past month.
Regardless, once Netanyahu's mandate expires at midnight, the president will have three days to choose a course of action. Rivlin can transfer the mandate to Lapid, but if he believes the Yesh Atid leader has no chance of forming a government, he could give the mandate to the Knesset.
Within the right-wing bloc, incidentally, officials on Monday were cautious not to assail the president openly, but said they were struggling to shake the feeling that the president was intervening in the political process. If Bennett reaches 59 Knesset seats, they said, and Lapid only has 45 or 51, there would be no reason not to transfer the mandate to Bennett.
As stated, officials in Lapid's camp very much want the president's mandate due to fears that Bennett will "flee" to the right-wing bloc. Lapid said this week he would not concede the president's mandate to Bennett.
"No. I will receive the mandate; we have 45 recommendations, maybe more. We need to receive the mandate; we're the second-largest party. The mandate needs to belong to Yesh Atid," Lapid said.
The President's Resident said in a statement: "We will not deal with the possibilities for the next mandate until this mandate expires."
Earlier Monday, in an attempt to beat the looming deadline, Netanyahu called on Bennett to serve alongside him in a rotating premiership but was rebuffed by the latter.
Netanyahu said it was imperative that Israelis stop with the boycotting of specific people and parties, "and we must make sure the infighting within the right does not prevent a right-wing government from being formed; we must not let the disaster of the Left and Oslo Accords repeat itself."
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Netanyahu then made the suggestion that Bennett would serve as prime minister with almost immediate effect: "I told him that in order to prevent the rise of the left-wing government, I would agree to his suggestion of having a rotation deal in which he would serve as prime minister for the first year. The Yamina faction members would be integrated into the Knesset and the government and if, God forbid, we end up failing to form a government, we will run on a joint ticket [in an early election] with each party preserving its relative strength."
Bennett shot back after Netanyahu's post, saying, "I never asked for the premiership, I just asked Netanyahu to form a right-wing government, which we would have supported."
