Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu is formally given the president’s mandate to form Israel’s 37th government, less than two weeks after Netanyahu’s right-religious political bloc won a decisive 64-lawmaker majority at the polls that will enable it to retake power after 19 months in the opposition.
“I decided to bestow upon you, MK Benjamin Netanyahu, the mandate to form a government,” says President Isaac Herzog to Netanyahu, at the president’s Jerusalem residence.
The president says it “hasn’t escaped my notice” that Netanyahu is on trial for corruption.
“I am not oblivious, of course, to the fact that there are ongoing legal proceedings against MK Netanyahu at the Jerusalem District Court, and I do not trivialize this at all,” says Herzog.
“Nevertheless, it is important to note that the Supreme Court has already expressed itself clearly on the matter of pending indictments against a member of Knesset nominated for the role of forming a government, in a number of rulings, including with an expanded panel of 11 justices, when the task of forming a government was assigned to MK Netanyahu by my predecessor, President Reuven Rivlin.
“In light of all this, having considered the facts in accordance with the law, and after you gave your consent to this, as required by law, I have decided to assign to you, MK Benjamin Netanyahu, the task of forming a government,” Herzog continues.
Sunday is the eighth time that Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, has received the legally required mandate from an Israeli president in order to attempt to form a government. He has succeeded five times and failed three, and served as prime minister an additional sixth time when he was elevated to the post by a short-lived direct election law in 1996.
Netanyahu will have 28 days to form a government. The president also has the discretion to give Netanyahu a 14-day extension should he request it.
Upon receiving the mandate to form Israel’s 37th government — and the sixth under his leadership — Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu says that he will be a prime minister for “all of Israel’s citizens, without exception.”
“The people decided clearly in favor of a government headed by me,” he begins, and “we’ll do everything to ensure a stable, successful government — a responsible government… that will act on behalf of all Israeli citizens, without exception.”
He says what is happening “reflects the democratic process that we are rightly proud of, [in] the sovereign, democratic State of Israel.”
Netanyahu adds: “Israel’s freedom and its achievements are not to be taken for granted. In the past decade, we turned Israel into a rising power among the nations… one of the world’s 10 leading nations, even though we are a thousandth of the world’s population.”
With his new coalition, “we’ll do everything to reach still greater heights.”
He says he is as emotional upon receiving the right to establish a government as he was “the first time, 26 years ago.”
Sounding conciliatory, he says: “Voters gave their clear support for me, my Likud movement, and to the partners who share our path. But I want to say: I intend to be the prime minister of everyone — those who voted for me and those who did not vote for me. That is my responsibility as the prime minister of Israel.”
“It reflects what I believe in and it is what guides my actions,” he adds.
“This is how I acted, together with my colleagues, to bring millions of vaccines for all Israeli citizens, to bring the best decade in Israeli history for security and the economy for all Israeli citizens, to bring four historic peace accords for all Israeli citizens — and for the benefit of all the peoples of the region, or at least all who seek peace, which is most of them.”
He says facing Israel’s challenges requires “internal unity” — and so he intends to work to “enlarge the spheres of agreement among us.”
While there are indeed differences, there are many areas on which most if not all Israelis can agree, he says.
Times of Israel
