Israel Matzav

Anyone want to bet on how long this coalition lasts?

The new government will be sworn in on Sunday, and already the problems have started from within the Likud.

Netanyahu is expected to face bitter opposition within his party from those who feel slighted by the positions they are expected to receive in the new government. Most current ministers are not expected to be promoted to more prestigious positions, while young MKs who did well in the party primary are unlikely to be made ministers at all.

While Transportation Minister Israel Katz and Culture and Sport Minister Limor Livnat will keep their jobs and Moshe Ya'alon will be defense minister, others, like Gilad Erdan and Silvan Shalom, expressed dissatisfaction with the portfolios they were offered.

Outgoing Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar is the leading candidate for Interior Minister, but Erdan is also a possibility, and MK Yariv Levin was asked to be the next coalition chairman, but has yet to accept the position. Former coalition chairman Ze'ev Elkin is likely to be Deputy Foreign Minister, at the insistence of former foreign minister Avigdor Liberman, who will return to his previous position if he is exonerated in his corruption trial.

Likud activists have asked to call a central committee meeting, expressing anger at the "disproportionate" amount of positions the Yisrael Beytenu section of Likud Beytenu received – five portfolios (Foreign, Agriculture, Tourism, Immigration and Absorption and Public Security) and a committee chairmanship for 11 MKs.

On Friday, the last day before Netanyahu's deadline to form a government, Yesh Atid and the Bayit Yehudi signed coalition agreements.

There are plenty of other potential bones of contention, some of which are listed here and here.  I give it a year at most.

Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, Danny Danon, Gidon Saar, Gilad Erdan, Likud party, Limor Livnat, Naftali Bennett, Sylvan Shalom, Yair Lapid, Zeev Elkin

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:32 PM