Parties Agree To Unity Gov’t As Long As ‘Unity’ = ‘My Party Dominates’

“It would be absurd to suggest that a party that got less than a third of the vote, and could not forge an alliance with enough others to form a majority, should get to lead,” they each argued.

Jerusalem, March 23 – Officials from Israel’s two largest political parties in the national legislature announced they each remain open to a government in equal partnership with the other, provided the terms of the equal partnership grant effective control of policy to the party of the person making the announcement.

Representatives of both the Likud Party and the Blue and White Party disclosed to reporters today that they are willing to sit in a government with the other and agree in principle to a national unity government with a rotation arrangement for prime minister, on condition that the agreement provides for one party to sideline the other, with the identity of the dominant party varying depending on who describes the terms.

In separate press conferences about progress in negotiations, the two parties – neither of which could cobble together a majority of the Knesset’s 120 members into a governing coalition from among its allies – disclosed the current issues under discussion, which they have narrowed to the single digits including which party would select which of several ministers, and which party would surrender to the other and let the other’s agenda define government policy for the next several years.

“We’re very close to an agreement,” revealed senior Likud figure Yuval Steinitz. “Our colleagues in Blue and White see eye-to-eye with us on almost all of the key issues, with the one sticking point remaining that they for some reason believe they should be able to define ‘unity government’ to mean that both parties are united behind their control. In fact it is Likud that should rule while Blue and White serves only a token role.”

“It would be absurd to suggest that a party that got less than a third of the vote, and could not forge an alliance with enough others to form a majority, should get to lead,” countered Blue and White member Ofer Shelach at a slightly later encounter with journalists. “If Likud, which got under forty seats, cannot reach the magic number of sixty-one, they should step back and let Blue and White take the reins, the party that got just over thirty and can’t form a coalition either.”

If the negotiations fail and the partied fail to form a unity government, a fourth round of elections becomes a near-certainty, a prospect that poses an unprecedented logistical and public health challenge amidst the coronavirus pandemic. Representatives of each side called on the other to set politics aside surrender for the sake of the country.

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