D

espite the clear electoral victories of Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud and the right-wing bloc, the formation of a new government is proving difficult.

That’s because various members of the 65-member bloc are making demands on Netanyahu that often conflict, preventing him from finalizing a ruling coalition.

Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu party, which won five seats, is demanding the portfolios of Defense, Absorption, Jerusalem, and Diaspora. Kulanu, the party of Moshe Kahlon, which suffered a dramatic decline from ten to four MKs, is demanding the Finance Ministry and a merger with the Likud that would bring it greater benefits.

The chareidi parties also have demands. The Likud opened negotiations for the next government, which officially began this past Sunday, with loyal partners United Torah Judaism and Shas, which won 16 seats collectively. Shas has requested the Interior, Housing, and Religious Affairs ministries. It also wants the new government to establish a department for French immigrants in the Absorption Ministry. Shas further wants the chairmanship of the Law, Constitution, and Justice Committee, deputy ministers in the Education and Finance ministries, and the chairmanship of another committee. If the coalition negotiations succeed, then Shas chairman Aryeh Deri will likely continue in his position as interior minister and the minister for the periphery, Negev and Galilee. The Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah will decide who will serve as the other ministers.

United Torah Judaism is demanding deputy minister positions with the status of minister in the Health Ministry (for Yaakov Litzman, who is interested in a third term in that role), Housing and Construction (for Meir Porush), Labor and Welfare (for Uri Maklev), and the chairmanship of the Knesset Finance Committee (for Moshe Gafni).

The party also demanded that the new government enact a Basic Law that would enshrine the value of Torah learning into Israel’s de facto constitution. This law came up in the last Knesset, but Netanyahu showed no interest in advancing it at the time. If passed, this law would preclude the High Court from striking down any future draft law, as a Basic Law would supersede the issue of “sharing the burden” of army service.

However, Lieberman has declared he will not join the government if the wording of the draft law that he presented to the previous Knesset as defense minister is changed. That law was not acceptable to all members of the chareidi faction, and now Shas and UTJ are united in their demand to amend various clauses in Lieberman’s proposal. The chareidi parties are also demanding changes in the conversion law to make it compliant with halachah, an issue that is very problematic for Lieberman.

As of this writing, one solution being discussed would grant the Finance Ministry to Lieberman and the Foreign Ministry to Moshe Kahlon. In this formulation, Lieberman could save political face. In the last government, he resigned as defense minister after insisting that Netanyahu take more aggressive action in Gaza. As well, as finance minister he could benefit the Russian sector, his natural constituency, which is facing a serious crisis regarding pensions for seniors who made aliyah to Israel.

For his part, Kahlon would be sent to the Foreign Ministry, where he would be the point man in dealing with the White House’s Middle East peace proposal, set to be announced in June. Kahlon has experience in such matters. In his previous term in Knesset as finance minister, Kahlon nurtured financial ties with the Palestinian Authority.

Netanyahu plans to offer the United Right parties the Education portfolio for Jewish Home’s Rafi Peretz and the Housing and Construction portfolio for Bezalel Smotrich of Tkuma. But the UTJ and Shas’s demands to receive this latter portfolio present an issue. The Likud also does not plan to give Smotrich the Justice portfolio that he has been demanding.

Concurrent to the coalition negotiations, the Likud is closely studying the list of MKs from the Blue and White party, headed by Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid. They are trying to find the weak links that they can lure into the coalition. It’s enough for just a handful of Blue and White MKs to agree to join the collation in an official fashion to change the whole picture for Netanyahu.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 758)