Netanyahu Arab party attack triggers crisis over coalition

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his call for a unity government in a speech delivered on Tuesday, 10 November, following the swearing-in ceremony of the new Knesset.

Opposing the prospect of forming a government with the backing of parties representing Palestinian citizens of Israel, Netanyahu accused the lawmakers of those factions of “supporting terrorism” and “seeking the destruction of the Jewish state”.

According to a report by The Times of Israel, Netanyahu’s remarks drew sharp backlash from the opposition.

Gadi Eisenkot, leader of the Yashar Party and tasked with forming the government, cancelled a scheduled meeting with Likud representatives.

Netanyahu’s efforts since the election campaign to delegitimise the Arab parties target the possibility of Eisenkot forming an administration with their support.

In the parliamentary arithmetic, Netanyahu’s bloc remains at 53 seats, whereas the parties recommending Eisenkot for the premiership hold a combined total of 67 seats.

Objections by Jewish opposition parties to collaborating with Arab parties, however, complicate the translation of that numerical majority into a government.

Netanyahu opened his address by turning to Iran, claiming that Tehran is once again seeking to advance its nuclear programme.

“The only way to permanently eliminate this existential threat is to bring down the regime of the ayatollahs,” Netanyahu said.

Citing security risks as the justification for establishing a national unity government, Netanyahu assessed: “We must set aside all other considerations and form a national unity government. Only a government of this kind can handle challenges of this scale.”

Netanyahu devoted the bulk of his speech to the prospect of opposition parties cooperating with Arab lawmakers.

Refusing to distinguish between Ra’am and the Joint List, Netanyahu asserted that both political movements aim to bring about the downfall of the Jewish state.

On this subject, Netanyahu said: “They differ only over what kind of Palestinian state will be built on the ruins of the Jewish state: an Islamic state on the Muslim Brotherhood model, like Hamas in Gaza, or a nationalist Palestinian state on the Fatah model? That is the entire difference between them.”

Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas had previously stated on multiple occasions that Netanyahu held negotiations with him in 2021 with the aim of forming a government.

Netanyahu’s attempt at the time yielded no result, and Ra’am subsequently joined the Bennett-Lapid coalition government.

Netanyahu also opposed Eisenkot’s efforts to engage ultra-Orthodox parties, addressing Haredi lawmakers and arguing that Israel’s Jewish identity is under threat.

Urging Haredi representatives not to trust the pledges made by the Eisenkot bloc, Netanyahu said: “They will make you a mountain of promises. But as soon as a government led by the left is formed, all those promises will evaporate. They will have a guarantee from the Arab parties and do whatever they want.”

Netanyahu reiterated his commitment to establish a legal framework for the status of yeshiva students and to pass a military conscription law through consensus with rabbis.

The United Torah Judaism party has expressed anger at the Netanyahu administration over its failure to implement legislation exempting religious school students from mandatory military service.

During the process of recommending a candidate to the President for forming the government, the party did not put forward any name.

The Shas party, by contrast, continues to maintain its place within the Netanyahu bloc.

The principle of mandatory national service for all, advocated by Eisenkot, remains one of the primary obstacles to any potential partnership with United Torah Judaism.

During Netanyahu’s address to parliament, protests erupted from the opposition benches regarding his advisers’ connections to Qatar and the failure to establish a state commission of inquiry into the attacks of 7 October 2023.

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett, leader of the Together Party, asked: “What about the state commission of inquiry? Why do you not declare Qatar an enemy state? What about your Qatari consultants?”

As Democrats Party leader Yair Golan and members of his party walked out of the chamber, lawmaker Gilad Kariv asked: “How much money did you take from Qatar?”

For many years, Netanyahu followed a policy that facilitated the transfer of financial funds from Qatar to the Hamas administration in Gaza.

Several close advisers working within the Prime Minister’s Office are under investigation over allegations that they obtained financial gains in exchange for safeguarding Doha’s interests.

It had been reported that Jonatan Urich, a longtime adviser to Netanyahu, admitted in a police statement to receiving hundreds of thousands of shekels for Qatar-linked activities, and that this work continued after 7 October.

Urich continues to work on Netanyahu’s team.

In his speech, Netanyahu revived allegations of foreign interference in election processes, demanding the lifting of restrictions placed on the investigation file.

Police inquiries are known to have yielded limited evidence regarding the allegations in question, with judicial authorities having indicated that the outcome would not change even if the claims were confirmed.

Following the speech, Eisenkot stated on his X account that Netanyahu had exploited an official ceremony for political ends.

Eisenkot said in his statement: “I sat and listened to the outgoing prime minister’s disconnected, divisive, hateful, and disgraceful speech. I became even more convinced that he is unfit to remain in office for a single minute longer.”

Reaffirming his goal of forming a “national emergency government”, Eisenkot stressed that Netanyahu’s administration had polarised the country and jeopardised its security.

The Joint List described the parliamentary speech as “inciting and racist”, announcing that it would work toward removing Netanyahu from office.

The party stated that it remains committed to representing in parliament the will of more than 500,000 citizens who supported it at the ballot box.

Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas told Channel 12 television that he was astonished by Netanyahu’s use of an official state ceremony to “lie, incite, and defame Arab parties”.

“We are law-abiding Israeli citizens. We do not want to establish an Islamic state or an Arab state,” Abbas said.

Abbas added: “We support peace and ending the conflict through a two-state solution. We condemn terrorism; we too are victims of terrorism.”