Netanyahu asks for extension to form government
JERUSALEM (AA) – Israeli Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu has asked President Isaac Herzog for a two-week extension to form the government.
“Negotiations are in full swing, and much progress has been made. However, I will require all the days of extension that you have the power to give me according to the law so that I can form the government,” Netanyahu wrote to Herzog in a letter, according to Israeli public broadcaster KAN.
The legal deadline for Netanyahu to form the government expires on December 11, it added.
On Thursday, Netanyahu’s Likud Party signed a deal with the far-right Shas party to join the upcoming government.
Under the agreement, the head of the Shas party, Aryeh Deri, will serve as the health minister and interior minister during the first half of the government’s four-year term. In the second half, he will serve as finance minister.
Netanyahu has also reached agreements with the Religious Zionism party, the Jewish Strength party and the Noam Party. He is still negotiating with the United Torah party over the legislation it requested.
Under these agreements, the Likud Party is expected to hold the ministries of defense, foreign affairs, justice, and infrastructure.
An election this November paved the way for Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, to return to power.
The increasingly radical character of the emerging new Israeli administration is feared to bring about a further hardening of policy towards Palestinians living under the occupation.
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