ISRAEL-ELECTION/PRESIDENT-PARTIES Israeli president meets parties for new government consultations

Record ID: 401206

  • Title: ISRAEL-ELECTION/PRESIDENT-PARTIES Israeli president meets parties for new government consultations
  • Date: 22nd March 2015
  • Summary: JERUSALEM (MARCH 22, 2015) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Hebrew) LIKUD MEMBER ZE'EV ELKIN SAYING: "We share the president's view that the people said what they want clearly and decisively. Therefore we call on all heads of parties, also in the process of the coming two days, to recommend Benjamin Netanyahu as practically the only candidate who should form the government." MEDIA C
  • Embargoed: 6th April 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Jerusalem
  • City:
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA9IKRR8QXIUBD7Y569FYVP49AK
  • Story Text: NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL WHICH WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
    While the worst crisis in decades in U.S.-Israeli relations deepened, President Reuven Rivlin on Sunday (March 22) began consulting political parties on nominating a candidate to form a governing coalition after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's victory in Tuesday's parliamentary election.
    Netanyahu, leader of the right-wing Likud party, seemed certain to get the nod and start what could be up to 42 days of negotiations with potential cabinet partners.
    As he met Likud party members in his Jerusalem residence, president Rivlin said: "We've been through a stormy and passionate election season - this is the time to begin the process of fusing and healing Israeli society. The government that will be formed was chosen by the majority of Israel's citizens - but it will have to answer to all of Israel's citizens, Jews, Arabs, left, right, north, south, centre and periphery."
    Likud member Ze'ev Elkin called on all parties to nominate Netanyahu: "We share the president's view that the people said what they want clearly and decisively. Therefore we call on all heads of parties, also in the process of the coming two days, to recommend Benjamin Netanyahu as practically the only candidate who should form the government."
    Shortly afterwards, members of the Zionist Union party, who lost the election, said they would not sit in the new Israeli coalition.
    "We don't intend to, as it seems, to be a part of the coalition when it is formed. Therefore we intend to lead the opposition headed by Isaac Herzog," said Zionist Union member Ethan Cabel.
    But forging coalition alliances, with far-right, religious and centrist parties, could prove easier for Netanyahu than patching a long-frayed relationship with Obama.
    Netanyahu's allies pushed back on Sunday against a U.S. presidential rebuke of the re-elected Israeli prime minister over his campaign pledge to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state.
    Interior minister Gilad Erdan, a Netanyahu confidant, said on Sunday the unity pact between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas Islamists hindered the prospects of a demilitarised Palestinian state at this time.
    U.S. officials have scolded Netanyahu not only for abandoning his commitment to a Palestinian state but also for his election-day accusation that left-wingers were working to get Israel's minority Arab voters out "in droves" to sway the election.
    Erdan said Netanyahu's remark received a "wrong interpretation".
    "We express deep sorrow over the wrong interpretation given to the Prime Minister's remark on election day to encourage voters of the national camp. Every person knows, in Israel and outside of it, that the state of Israel is a democratic state. We are proud of it. We act in order to keep the rights of minorities," Erdan said after attending consultations with Rivlin.
    Netanyahu denied he had been trying to suppress the votes of Arab citizens or that his comments were racist.
    Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party won 30 seats, compared with 24 for his main rival, the centre-left Zionist Union. It was a huge gain from the last election in 2013, when Likud won 18. Zionist Union's leader, Isaac Herzog, conceded defeat.
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