Prime Minister Netanyahu calls for broad government — Jerusalem Post

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on other parties to join in forming a broad national government together with Likud, provided that they do not support terrorism, as he put it. In a social media post, he also said he was ready for dialogue on such a coalition format, the Jerusalem Post reports.

Conditions for the coalition

Netanyahu said that the Israeli public does not want a government dependent on the Arab parties Ra'am and the Joint List. He accused these political forces of supporting terrorism and denying the existence of the Jewish state.

According to the prime minister, his camp had supported the creation of a broad national government from the first day. Netanyahu also said that a majority of Jewish voters had made Likud the largest party and him the head of the next government. He added that Likud's partners and any other party that wishes to join the coalition and does not support terrorism may join it.

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Election results

According to election results released last week, Likud won 27 seats in the Knesset, while Netanyahu's bloc has 53 mandates in total. Yashar, led by Gadi Eisenkot, received 21 seats, and its bloc won 48. The Arab parties together won 19 mandates.

Before the vote count was completed, Netanyahu called for the formation of a strong right-wing national government and warned against a coalition that would depend on parties he described as anti-Zionist.

For his part, Eisenkot proposed four principles for participants in his coalition: recognition of Israel as a Jewish, democratic, liberal and egalitarian state; commitment to the values of the Declaration of Independence; mandatory military, national or civilian service for all citizens; and recognition of Hamas as a terrorist organization and the need to destroy its military and governing structures in the Gaza Strip.