BICOM

Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party yesterday formally declared its endorsement of current-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to form the next government.

Fulfilling his legal obligation, President Shimon Peres yesterday began the process of consulting with all elected political parties over who he should invite to form the next government. As the largest faction in the incoming Knesset, Peres first met with the Likud-Beitenu delegation, including Likud ministers Gideon Saar, Gilad Erdan and Yuval Steinitz and Yisrael Beitenu’s David Rotem and Robert Ilatov. Saar said, “It is clear that only one man, Benjamin Netanyahu, can form a government, and we want that government to be as broad and stable as possible.”

They were swiftly followed by the delegation of the second largest party Yesh Atid, headed by Yair Lapid, who told Peres that he was recommending Netanyahu to head the government as “Yesh Atid’s platform states that the head of the largest party should be prime minister.” Lapid then outlined his party’s conditions for joining a Netanyahu-led coalition, saying “What Israel needs is a government that doesn’t include ministers without portfolio, that will bring about equality in bearing the burden [of military service] and will return to the table of diplomatic negotiations.” Peres will meet with the remaining ten Knesset factions today, with Jewish Home, Shas, United Torah Judaism and Kadima expected to endorse Netanyahu.

Meanwhile, speculation is rife over who will be appointed to various government portfolios. Several Israeli publications claim that Lapid will become the foreign or finance minister, but that Yesh Atid also wants control of the housing and education ministries and chairmanship of the influential Knesset finance committee, which is currently in the hands of United Torah Judaism. Jewish Home will apparently make the interior or justice ministry their chief demand in coalition negotiations.