Israelis eyed the end of an era Thursday after a motley alliance of parties from across the political spectrum agreed to form a government to unseat veteran Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid announced the deal just minutes before a midnight Wednesday deadline, prompting celebrations into the early hours by the premier’s opponents and a defiant show of support by his fans.
With the threat of possible jail time hanging over him in his ongoing trial on corruption charges, the 71-year-old is unlikely to allow his record 12 straight years to end without a messy fight, analysts warned.
“All lawmakers who were elected with votes from the right must oppose this dangerous left-wing government,” he said.
The new coalition would see the religious nationalist Naftali Bennett serve as prime minister for two years before Lapid, a secular centrist, would take the helm.
“Opening the champagne right now is a bit hasty,” said Tamar Hermann, a political scientist at the Israel Democracy Institute.
Lapid, 57, a former TV presenter who heads the centrist Yesh Atid party, put his own prime ministerial ambitions on hold to broker the coalition deal.
“I promise that this government will work in the service of all of the citizens of Israel, those who voted for it and those who did not,” he wrote on Facebook.
Bennett, 49, an estranged former protege of Netanyahu, was the lynchpin of the deal to unseat him.
“Four elections … have already proven to all of us that there is simply no right-wing government headed by Netanyahu. It is either a fifth election or a unity government,” Bennett said.
Also part of the alliance are the Labor party, the dovish Meretz party, and the centrist Blue and White party of Defence Minister Benny Gantz.
It released pictures of its leader Mansour Abbas signing a coalition agreement alongside Bennett, a staunch support of the Jewish settler movement.
Raam previously ran as part of the Arab-led Joint List but broke away over differences with its communist and Arab nationalist members. Joint List lawmaker Aida Touma-Sliman said she would oppose the new deal because “getting rid of Netanyahu and keeping his path is a political mistake.”
Allies of Netanyahu lashed out at the coalition.
Yamina member Matan Kahana hit back, telling public radio: “I’m convinced this government will be even more right-wing than the government of Netanyahu.”
The Shin Bet domestic security service said it would provide protection for the coalition’s designated prime minister, an unusual move.
Netanyahu biographer Ben Caspit predicted the incumbent would fight the new government tooth and nail, doing everything he could to block its formation and then battling it from the opposition benches if necessary.
“He is trying to burn it all,” Caspit said of Netanyahu. “He still thinks he will succeed against all odds.”
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