The leader of the opposition in Israel, Yair Lapid, said on Thursday (16) that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party should choose another leader. In this way, someone else would take over the government of the country that is at war with the terrorist group Hamas.
“We must form a government of national reconstruction. The Likud will lead it, Netanyahu and the extremists will be replaced“More than 90 members of the Knesset (Israel’s Parliament) will be partners in a coalition of healing and reconnection,” Lapid wrote on social media.
However, it is not that easy to overthrow Netanyahu. In Israel, as in other parliamentary countries, the president of the party or coalition that wins the most seats in parliament assumes the office of prime minister. The term of office is four years, but it can be shortened if Parliament calls early elections. This requires a majority of the 120 parliamentarians, i.e. 61 parliamentarians.
The current coalition, formed with radical rightwing parties in December last year, has 64 of the 120 seats. If new elections were to take place, this coalition would only receive 45 seats, according to polls on voting intentions. Opposition parties, on the other hand, would increase to 70 seats. For this reason, it is highly unlikely that current MPs will vote for a new election. That would be quite a defeat for them.
The likelihood that Likud members will leave Netanyahu and change the party leader is also low. According to the association’s statutes, this would require current head of state Netanyahu to call an internal election. However, his record shows that it would be very unlikely for the prime minister to make such a decision, as he has always done everything possible to stay in power in Jerusalem.
Support for the leader also remains strong in the Likud. “In the Likud there is a long tradition of loyalty to the party leader, especially when he is also prime minister. It is very difficult to imagine Likud members committing widespread treason now. “There is very strong criticism of the idea of wanting to change the leader in the middle of the government,” says political scientist André Lajst from the NGO StandWithUS in an interview with Antagonist chat.
According to Lapid’s statement, no Likud member publicly commented on the opponent’s proposal.
Watch the full interview with political scientist André Lajst on Papo Antagonista:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnImGjB_s