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Netanyahu rejects national unity government

[ssba]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected Avigdor Lieberman’s call to form a national unity government with the Blue and White party after the September elections.

In an op-ed in Israel Hayom, Netanyahu promised Likud voters he will form: “A strong right-wing government that will continue to lead the State of Israel to unprecedented achievements and will protect the security of Israel’s citizens … there won’t be a unity government”.

He said there is one choice facing the citizens of Israel in the upcoming elections: “Who will be the next prime minister of the State of Israel. Will a weak and unexperienced left-wing under Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz be formed here, or a strong right-wing government headed by the Likud and me.”

He added “We mustn’t repeat the mistake of the last elections, in which right-wing voters lost seven seats to parties that failed to cross the electoral threshold. The right-wing must not be put in jeopardy; that is why you have to vote for the Likud. Anyone who doesn’t cast a Mahal [Likud] ballot is voting in practice to topple the right-wing government and to establish a left-wing government headed by Lapid and Gantz.”

BICOM’s poll of polls currently predicts that the right bloc in Israel will win 56 seats and unable to form a 61 seat majority Government without the support of Lieberman’s Yisrael Beitenu’s party. Lieberman refused to join a Netanyahu-led coalition after April’s election and has said he will only back a unity government.

The Israeli Police yesterday recommended that Yaakov Litzman, Deputy Health Minister and United Torah Judaism leader, be indicted for bribery, fraud, breach of trust and suborning perjury. Litzman is alleged to have exploited his authority as Health Minister to alter the psychiatric evaluation of Malka Leifer who was due to be extradited to Australia where she is charged with 74 counts of sexual offences against children. Litzman is also suspected of helping to prevent the closure of a local food shop that his own ministry said had violated multiple food hygiene regulations.