ISRAEL’S PRIME minister-designate Binyamin Netanyahu vowed yesterday to press on with efforts to form a national unity government, despite being rejected by both Tzipi Livni, the leader of the centrist Kadima, and head of the Labor party party Ehud Barak.
Mr Netanyahu, who heads the right-wing Likud, was given 21 days to form a coalition by President Shimon Peres last week.
He already has the backing of a majority of 65 of the 120-members of the Knesset parliament, but wants to avoid relying on a narrow coalition of right-wing and religious parties. Such a coalition would find it difficult to take any far-reaching decisions and would probably not last long.
Speaking to Likud Knesset members, Mr Netanyahu said Israel is facing its worst state of emergency since the war of independence in 1948.
He said a broad-based unity government must be set up to tackle the economic crisis, rocket attacks on Israel’s southern and northern borders and, above all, the Iranian nuclear threat.
“In view of all these threats, the need for unity grows by the minute. The people want unity. It is a must.”
The Likud leader spoke after receiving a firm no during talks with Labor leader Ehud Barak yesterday morning.
Labor won only 13 seats in the election earlier this month, its worst ever performance.
“The voters sent Labor to the opposition,” Mr Barak said after his meeting with the prime minister-designate, “and that’s where we’ll go”.
On Sunday night, after a 1½-hour meeting with the Likud leader, Kadima’s Tzipi Livni said the “deep ideological differences” between Kadima and Likud prevented her party joining a Mr Netanyahu-led government.
She said on the Palestinian question Mr Netanyahu had refused to commit to a two-state solution, insisting that a new approach and a more creative formula was needed. Mr Netanyahu was reportedly willing to grant Kadima two of the three most senior government portfolios if they joined the coalition.
Even though the Kadima leader refused to even set up a coalition negotiating team, Mr Netanyahu said the differences could be bridged with coalition guidelines acceptable to both parties.
Refusing to take no for an answer, the Likud leader scheduled further discussions with both the Kadima and Labor leaders, suspending talks with the other coalition partners.