A modest proposal: Solving the elections logjam

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said recently that forming a governing coalition of more than 60 MKs will be ‘difficult, but not impossible.’ I would like to suggest a relatively simple solution.

Gideon Saar with his six seats stated that he will not support a government where Netanyahu is prime minister. The reason he gave is that Bibi may continue to be distracted by his trial, and might be influenced to make decisions on the basis of what could benefit his standing in the trial, rather than what that is best for the country as a whole. We think he has a point.

So here is the solution:

1. In exchange for Bibi stepping aside from being prime minister, and enabling the formation of a stable government after 4 elections, President Reuven Rivlin will give him a full pardon.
2. Likud will have an internal primary for prime minister, and someone very able such as Nir Birkat or Yisrael Katz will become prime minister.
3. Netanyahu will become finance minister or foreign minister. He will also be the new prime minister’s “right hand man,” providing the new prime minister with assistance and insight that he gained from his excellent leadership during decades as prime minister.
   Gideon Saar will now gladly join, and the government will have 65 ministers – Likud (30), Shas (9), Yamina (7), UTJ (7), Religious Zionists (6), and New Hope (6).
4. Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party with its 8 seats probably would fit in just fine, bringing the total to 73.
5. If the Ra’am party wants to join in exchange for help in ameliorating the problems in the Arab community, their 4 seats would make a grand total of 77.

As a result, the government would be very stable. The country would not be distracted by the trials. The only change is that Bibi would accept not being the “prime” minister. But he would remain very much involved in a government that would have the strength to tackle the many issues that the country needs to deal with.