Likud minister: We’re going to be in the opposition

An unnamed “senior Likud minister” has declared that Benjamin Netanyahu cannot form a new government and that the party is headed for the opposition – at least temporarily.

While Likud secured the most seats (36) the right-wing bloc of Likud, Yamina, Shas and United Torah Judaism, only managed to reach 58 seats in Monday’s election – three short of a majority.

“Netanyahu cannot become prime minister again,” said the senior Likud minister, reported the Times of Israel.

“We hoped to get a result of 60 MKs in the right-wing bloc on election day. We knew 61 was not realistic, but with 60 we had something to work with, we could have had an auction to see who would jump ship first.”

“Eventually one MK would have crossed the lines. Today, though, we have 58 MKs. So, there’s nothing we can do. We’re going to be in the opposition.”

The minister claimed that Netanyahu should not even seek a mandate from President Reuven Rivlin to form a government. “I’d tell the president, ‘I don’t have the necessary majority, I don’t have a government. Move on,’” he said.

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“Gantz has 62 seats if the Arab MKs are willing to forget what he said prior to the elections about gunning for a ‘Jewish majority’,” the minister added.

“The problem is, the Arabs have too many MKs. It’s not like the five MKs that assisted Yitzhak Rabin in forming a coalition in 1992. Today there are 15 of them, and they decide everything. But we understand by now that there’s nothing we can do against that.”

According to the report, the minister did “not sound or look disappointed at the prospects of being demoted to an opposition member of Knesset”.

“So we’re going to the opposition, and the head of the opposition will be Benjamin Netanyahu”, he said. “I don’t believe we will be able to topple their government with a vote of no confidence. You need 61 MKs to support that as well as to present an alternative candidate for the premiership.”

However, the minister believes a Gantz-led coalition will quickly “self-disintegrate”.

“In a year’s time, there will be another election,” the minister says. “Netanyahu will lead the Likud and the right-wing bloc. He’s not going anywhere. Blue and White will reach these elections after they’ve formed a government without a Jewish majority, relying on the Arab’s Joint List, and after a failure that is as expected as the heat wave in mid-August.”

“They are going to form a coalition of opposites and face a dire budgetary crisis, and the coronavirus that is killing the markets. They’ll have a coalition, but they’ll also have national chaos, and eventually we’ll retake government big time. It’s a done deal.”