Israeli Opposition Parties Form Coalition Agreement To Unseat Netanyahu

Israeli opposition parties have agreed to form a new government to end Benjamin Netanyahu’s 12-year rule as Prime Minister. Yair Lapid of the Yesh Atid party has informed President Reuven Rivlin that he has formed an eight-faction coalition to bring down Netanyahu from power.

The said agreement now has Netanyahu rolling in political woes as he stands on trial for criminal charges of fraud, bribery and breach of trust while in office.

In light of this, Israel’s president Reuven Rivlin had ordered Lapid to form a new government after Netanyahu failed once again to put together his own coalition between his natural allies following Israel’s fourth election in less than two years.

Lapid, who is the leader of the centrist Yesh Atid and a former TV presenter, released his statement via Twitter confirming he has accomplished the coalition task.

"I pledge that this government will work in the service of all Israeli citizens, those who voted for it and those who did not. It will respect its opponents and do everything in its power to unite and connect all parts of Israeli society."

Lapid won the much needed support of technology multi-millionaire Naftali Bennett, head of the right-wing Yamina party. Bennett, who is reputed for being a hardline religious-nationalist has also held a number of government positions including the defense ministry.

Under the new coalition agreement, the role of prime minister will go on rotation between Bennett and Lapid, with the former taking up the seat for the first two years and then handing over the post to Lapid in the final two.

According to Al Jazeera, questions were raised as to how long the new 8-faction coalition government would remain united seeing as this was formed with a patchwork of opposing ideologies between parties and even includes a party representing Palestinian citizens of Israel.

Israel’s parliament still needs to vote on the agreement as it requires a majority support before the new government can be sworn in. Voting is expected to take place within seven to 12 days.

Should the coalition fail to win the support of the majority in the 120-seat Knesset, Israel runs the risk of having to go to elections for a fifth time.

Images of the nearly impossible coalition has circulated around Israeli media showing Lapid, Bennett and Arab islamist Raam party leader, Mansour Abbas, signing the agreement.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu called the proposed new coalition the "fraud of the century," citing how it had endangered the state and people of Israel.

On the other hand, the BBC said that it was not the left-wing that sealed Netanyahu's defeat but it was his fellow right-wingers,who had turned into his enemies, that brought him down.