New Hope chairman Gideon Sa’ar has been holding talks with Yaakov Atrakchi, a confidant of opposition chairman Binyamin Netanyahu, on the formation of an alternative government headed by Netanyahu in the current Knesset, Yediot Achranot reported on Wednesday morning.

According to the report, the talks have already reached the stage of negotiating appointments, with senior positions being offered to Sa’ar and Ze’ev Elkin. Sa’ar was reportedly offered the foreign ministry as the Likud insists on keeping the justice ministry for itself. The report added that Netanyahu has instructed Likud MKs to refrain from attacking Sa’ar or the New Hope party.

Both the Likud and New Hope parties denied the report. But in wake of the report along with numerous other coalition crises, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is holding a meeting on Wednesday with the heads of the coalition parties in his office in Jerusalem.

On Tuesday, Sa’ar threatened that the coalition will dissolve if the bill that applies Israeli law to Israelis living in Yehudah and Shomron, the “Emergency Regulations – Judea and Samaria, Jurisdiction and Legal Assistance Act,” isn’t passed next week.

The act, which was originally enacted as an “emergency measure’ after the Six-Day War in 1967, applies the extension of Israeli criminal and some civil law to Israelis in Yehudah and Shomron, and must be renewed every five years. Passing the bill, which expires at the end of June, is vital as since Israel did not annex Yehudah and Shomron, Israelis living there are subject to the IDF’s military rule, and without this bill, they could not be prosecuted for criminal acts, be required to pay taxes, or receive health insurance. Instead, they would be subject to the IDF’s Civil Administration’s legal system, just like the Arabs.

The coalition now lacks a majority and also cannot rely on the Islamist Ra’am party or the left-wing Meretz party to vote for what they view as a bill enacting de facto Israeli sovereignty over “Palestinian occupied territories”.

Meanwhile, the opposition announced on Wednesday that its members will vote against all coalition bills in order to topple the government, saying that it isn’t their job to bail out Bennett’s government if he is unsuccessful in earning his coalition partners’ support.

Sa’ar withdrew the Yehudah and Shomron bill on Monday from the Knesset’s agenda only hours before it was scheduled for a vote after it became clear that it wouldn’t pass. Several other bills were withdrawn for the same reason.

“Next week will be the test if the coalition wants to continue to exist or not,” Sa’ar said.
“Coalition members who vote against this law are basically saying ‘I don’t want this government to exist’.”

Sa’ar’s best option is to jump the coalition now and form a new government as recent polls show him either failing to cross the electoral threshold or making it into the Knesset by a tiny margin.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)