Israel: Opposition Parties Across Ideologies Planning To Unite To Unseat Benjamin Netanyahu From PM Office

Israel Prime Minister (PM) Benjamin Netanyahu could well be unseated from power as far-right Yamina party chief Naftali Bennett has declared his support to opposition leader Yair Lapid that will form a massive coalition of eight parties across all ideologies to remove the incumbent PM from office.

Lapid leads the Yesh Atid party that had finished second to Netanyahu’s Likud in the last national elections that were held in the country on 23rd March.

Bennet’s party has six seats in the 120-member parliament but that number is enough to make him the ‘kingmaker’ in the current situation. A potential power-sharing deal could see Bennet taking over as the PM and then later handing it over to Lapid on a rotational agreement.

“I am announcing today that I intend to work with all my might towards establishing a unity government with Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid,” Bennet confirmed in his speech, as quoted by Reuters.

On the other hand, Netanyahu has alleged Bennet, a former defence chief, of committing the ‘fraud of the century’ given that he had previously publicly promised to never join hands with Lapid. However, the 71-year-old still maintains that a right-wing government is yet a possibility in the middle-eastern country.

Israel has conducted four inconclusive national elections since April 2019 and hence Netanyahu continues to stay in office as the head of the caretaker government.