Talks on formation of new Israeli government continue

Talks are continuing over the formation of the new coalition government in Israel following the country’s General Election last month which left no single party with an absolute majority.

The leader of Israel’s Yesh Atid party, Yair Lapid, has called on former Defence Minister and head of the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu, Avigdor Lieberman, to join a government formed by the leader of the Blue-White Alliance, Benny Gantz. The former Chief of Staff’s Israel Resilience Party put together the Alliance with the centrist Yesh Atid ahead of the election on 9 April.

Negotiations also continue about Yisrael Beiteinu joining a government led by current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following Lieberman’s call for decisive actions in the Gaza Strip instead of understandings, and other demands. Netanyahu said on Wednesday that the right-wing party’s demands are exaggerated and he cannot respond to them.

According to Lapid, his party’s alliance could have more than 60 seats under a central government. In order to entice Lieberman to join, he promised the Moldovan-born former minister a new law to increase pension provisions for Russian immigrants.

READ: Israel’s Netanyahu could form minority government as coalition talks founder