At Last: Netanyahu Secures a Government

By COLlive & IsraelNationalNews

A government in the making…

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, signed an agreement to form an “emergency government” that will keep him in office for a least another year and a half.

Netanyahu, head of the right-wing Likud party, met on Monday with his chief rival Benny Gantz of the Blue and White party to create a coalition in the Knesset.

“An agreement for the establishment of a national emergency government is now being signed by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Blue and White (alliance) chairman… Benny Gantz,” they said in a joint statement.

The development brings an end to a political gridlock that has taken the country to 3 national elections within a single year. With the outbreak of the coronavirus and the country’s strict social distancing rules, a fourth election did not seem feasible.

Under the agreement, Netanyahu will be prime minister for a year and a half followed by Gantz in October 2021, it was reported.

Commentator Amit Segal reported that the Likud and the right-wing parties will hold the position of the Knesset Speaker, chair the Finance, Economy and Coronavirus committees.

The Foreign Ministry will be held for half a term by the Likud and for half the term by Blue and White.

The right will also receive the housing, interior, education, environmental protection, energy and Jerusalem portfolios with a number of additional portfolios.

Blue and White will receive the defense, justice, economy, welfare, immigration and absorption, culture and sports, communications, tourism, social equality, diaspora, agriculture and strategic affairs portfolios.

Under the agreement, as of early July, the government will be able to apply sovereignty in the Jordan Valley and Judea and Samaria according to the Trump administration’s ‘Deal of the Century’.

Expected to join the coalition are the frum parties Shas and Yahadut Hatorah (Gimmel) who have been loyal allies of Netanyahu. Yamina, a group of frum Zionist parties led by current Defense Minister Naftali Bennett, is also expected to be invited.

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