{"id":41352,"date":"2019-10-27T23:22:11","date_gmt":"2019-10-27T23:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=41352"},"modified":"2019-10-27T23:22:11","modified_gmt":"2019-10-27T23:22:11","slug":"israel-gantz-meets-netanyahu-for-coalition-government-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=41352","title":{"rendered":"Israel: Gantz meets Netanyahu for coalition government talks"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Israel’s prime minister and his main rival have opened a new round of unity talks in the latest effort to avoid an unprecedented third parliamentary election in less than a year.<\/p>\n

Sunday’s meeting was their first round of direct talks since president Reuven Rivlin on Wednesday tasked former military chief Benny Gantz with trying to form a government.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Israel has been paralysed by political deadlock following an inconclusive election last month, with neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud nor Gantz’s Blue and White party in control of a 61-seat majority in parliament.<\/p>\n

More:<\/h4>\n

A joint statement from Netanyahu’s Likud and Gantz’s Blue and White alliance after the meeting however did not herald any breakthrough.<\/p>\n

“The two discussed the structure of political options available,” the English-language statement said.<\/p>\n

“Another meeting is anticipated between the two.”<\/p>\n

With Blue and White controlling 33 seats in parliament and Likud holding 32, the two parties together have enough support to form a government. While both men support the idea of a unity deal, they have disagreed over who should lead it.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu wants his traditional religious and nationalist allies to sit with Likud and Blue and White.<\/p>\n

Gantz is not keen to form a government with Netanyahu’s hardline allies. He also refuses to serve under a Netanyahu-led government while the long-serving leader faces possible indictment for corruption charges.<\/p>\n

Israel’s attorney general is to decide on whether to charge Netanyahu in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

It is the first time in more than a decade that a candidate other than Netanyahu has been given the opportunity to form a government.<\/span><\/p>\n

But without Likud, Gantz’s options are limited. He can try to break up Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc and win over smaller hardline parties. So far, there is no sign of that happening.<\/p>\n

His remaining potential partners include a diverse group of parties that have little in common, including the secular ultranationalist Yisrael Beitenu party, dovish Jewish parties and a grouping of Arab parties, which have never sat in a government before.<\/p>\n

The country has faced political paralysis since Yisrael Beitenu leader Avigdor Lieberman refused to sit in a government with Netanyahu’s ultra-religious partners following April’s election. That decision robbed Netanyahu of a parliamentary majority, leading to last month’s inconclusive election.<\/p>\n

Lieberman has refused to endorse either candidate for prime minister and demands they reach a unity deal. If the sides fail, Israel could face a third election early next year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Israel’s prime minister and his main rival have opened a new round of unity talks in the latest effort to avoid an unprecedented third parliamentary election in less than a year. Sunday’s meeting was their first round of direct talks since president Reuven Rivlin on Wednesday tasked former military chief Benny Gantz with trying to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":41353,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}