Parties in final sprint to build coalition against Netanyahu

JERUSALEM: Israeli politicians battling to unseat veteran Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were racing against the clock on Tuesday in talks to build a “change” coalition spanning the political spectrum.

They have until a minute before midnight Wednesday to cobble together an alternative governing alliance that would bring down the right-wing leader known as Bibi, who has ruled Israel for the past 12 years.

The high-stakes push is led by former TV presenter Yair Lapid, a secular centrist, who on Sunday won the crucial support of right-wing religious nationalist Naftali Bennett, a tech millionaire.

“The coalition negotiation team sat all night and made progress towards creating a unity government,” a Bennett spokesman said in a statement, adding that further talks were scheduled for the afternoon.

In order to gain a 61-seat majority in the 120-seat Knesset, their unlikely alliance would also have to include other left and right-wing parties and likely require the support of Arab-Israeli politicians.

In order to bring down the 71-year-old Netanyahu the fragile grouping would have to unite, despite their deep ideological differences on flashpoint issues such as Jewish settlements in the Israel-occupied West Bank.