Analysis: the ex-prime minister is eager to exploit the weakness in the fraying coalition that replaced him
Photograph: Atef Safadi/EPAPhotograph: Atef Safadi/EPALast modified on Mon 13 Jun 2022 05.11 BSTmade his final address to the Knesset as prime minister. In a proud and bitter half-hour speech, he recounted his successes during 12 years in power and warned of existential threats facing Israel under the incoming coalition government. He also stressed that his conservative Likud party would be back in office soon.
If just one more renegade member quits, the coalition is unlikely to survive the no-confidence vote that Likud will immediately table, and the opposition could call for new elections. “We are making our voice heard in the plenum but we are a minority in the government and a minority in society,” she said. “I must admit that it’s more complicated than I thought to make even a small step.”
“Basically we are in the same position as a year ago. The opposition’s voting discipline means that we are still dealing with the choice of Bibi, or not Bibi,” said Naama Lazimi, an MK for the government’s centre-left Labor party, using Netanyahu’s well-known nickname. The prevailing assessment among the public and inside the Knesset building, however, is that the coalition will be lucky to make it to the end of the summer session intact.