Rivlin negotiates unity gov’t with Gantz, Netanyahu
61 MKs recommend Blue & White leader to form gov’t
President Reuven Rivlin brought together Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Blue and White leader Benny Gantz and the negotiating teams for both Likud and Blue and White at the President’s Residence on Sunday night in an effort to form a unity government to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.
The meeting ended after an hour and a half with both sides promising to continue meeting and Rivlin’s office saying he had “encouraged them to deepen their connection.”
Sources close to the president said he was open to both a temporary emergency government and a four-year unity government. Among the options to be discussed was a government that would first be led by Netanyahu for a year, followed by Gantz for two years and then Netanyahu again or whoever would lead Likud at that time.
“The public expects to see unity as soon as possible,” Rivlin said in an earlier meeting with Likud representatives. “No one wants a fourth election.”
Rivlin’s invitation to Netanyahu and Gantz came after presidential consultations at the President’s Residence in which Gantz received a majority of recommendations from the 61 MKs of Blue and White, the Joint List, Labor-Meretz and Yisrael Beytenu. After the consultations, Rivlin’s office initially said he would officially give Gantz the mandate to form a government on Monday afternoon, but then he invited Netanyahu and Gantz to meet. The deadline for Rivlin to grant a mandate to form a government is Tuesday at midnight.
Gantz does not have a clear path to forming a government because multiple MKs in his own party oppose forming a minority government backed by the Joint List of Arab parties, which is the Blue and White’s only option for a narrow, center-left coalition. Nevertheless, Blue and White announced its intentions to press ahead with efforts to remove current Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein (Likud) and vote in its own candidate, Meir Cohen.
This would give Blue and White vital control over the formation of Knesset committees and numerous procedural matters in the legislature. Edelstein vowed however that he would not allow a vote to replace him to be held in the Knesset plenum.
“Hasty political processes such as electing a new Knesset speaker are designed to shut down the possibility of unity that the people want,” Edelstein said. “I will not enable a process that breaks conventions and is designed to enable underhanded opportunism in the legislature.”
Blue and White appealed Edelstein’s decision to Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit to determine whether Edelstein could block the vote, despite there being 61 MKs ready to remove him from office.
MK Yair Lapid, who is no. 2 in Blue and White, denounced Edelstein’s decision, saying it was in keeping with the announcement in the middle of the night to put the court system in a state of emergency to postpone Netanyahu’s trial.
“Edelstein can no longer claim to the world that he is statesmanlike,” Lapid said. “Every minute that the Knesset is not overseeing the government represents a huge failure to deal with the coronavirus crisis and a massive blow to democracy.”
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Critics said Netanyahu’s timing had unavoidably raised the cloud of a conflict of interest and that he should have made sure his hearing went forward at all costs so that the rest of his actions would not come under question.
There was also criticism that the two moves – the Shin Bet surveillance and the closing of much of the courts – were ordered together to attempt to give a veil of legitimacy to the postponement of Netanyahu’s trial.
Further, critics said that the Shin Bet had not requested the new authorities given to them and that Netanyahu appeared to have pushed for the most extreme emergency measures possible.
Top intelligence officials did not even want to comment on whether they needed the new authorities.
In addition, critics said Mandelblit and Hayut had finally been steamrolled by a combination of Netanyahu’s “shock and awe” style campaign with the coronavirus along with a constant wave of political attacks against them.
The NGO Movement for Quality Government filed a petition Sunday morning with the High Court to block the postponement as well as a request that Mandelblit freeze Ohana’s order.
According to the NGO, “Minister Ohana is an interim minister in an interim government that has never received the confidence of the public.”
The movement added that, “the regulations stand in conflict with Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, possibly amounting to a grave, unconstitutional violation of human rights, and were never approved by the Knesset.”
Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg ruled late Sunday that Ohana and Mandelblit had until Tuesday at 4 p.m. to respond to the NGO’s petition to block the emergency order from postponing Netanyahu’s trial.Sohlberg added that, despite the NGO’s request, he would not consider issuing a temporary decision freezing Ohana’s emergency order until the acting justice minister and Mandelblit had responded.
However, Hayut’s deferential letter to the emergency situation signaled that, at least at this stage, the NGO is unlikely to get a sympathetic audience.
Ohana’s emergency order will be in force for 24 hours and is expected to be extended.
All non-urgent court sessions with the exception of bail hearings and High Court of Justice hearings are postponed under the order.
The district courts – including the Jerusalem District Court where Netanyahu’s trial was due to open on Tuesday – were included in the order, which led the court to issue the postponement. Ohana’s office reported that further steps would be examined and taken.
According to the Justice Ministry, court sessions that will be allowed while the order is in effect will be urgent requests to postpone evacuations or demolitions, deportations and arrests among other issues.
On Saturday night, Netanyahu announced that counterterrorism measures would be used to identify and track potential coronavirus patients. The measures, allowing state security services to track citizen’s phones, led to dramatic public battles by the political class. Mandelblit’s office approved Netanyahu’s regulation allowing the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) to surveil Israeli citizens, “subject to limitations, particularly concerning the period they would be in effect.”
However, Mandelblit did not explain what any of the limitations were that he had placed on the move. Blue and White MK and former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon responded to Netanyahu’s new regulations, saying on Twitter that “everyone who criticized us when we warned against becoming [President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan’s Turkey should acknowledge and understand the cynical exploitation of the coronavirus crisis for the personal interests of a defendant before trial.”
Former justice minister Yamina MK Ayelet Shaked tweeted, “The technological surveillance after coronavirus patients is a radical move and a grave violation of privacy, but it can save lives and money to the state.”
Leon Sverdlov contributed to this report. •