The man who stood the best chance of replacing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Yamina party Chair Naftali Bennett, called Yesh Atid party Chair Yair Lapid and Islamist Ra’am party leader Mansour Abbas on May 13 to tell them he was abandoning their joint government initiative.
The premature death of what has been billed in recent weeks as a “government of change,” tentatively scheduled to be sworn in next week and send Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the Knesset opposition benches, is the direct outcome of violent clashes in mixed Jewish-Arab towns this week.
The violent and unusual confrontation that erupted earlier this week between Israeli Arab and Jewish citizens took Israelis and their political leadership by complete surprise. It broke out even as Israel and Hamas engaged in yet another round of deadly fighting, with rockets from the Gaza Strip raining down on Israel and bombs from Israel dropping on Gaza. However, despite the daring Hamas missile launches targeting Jerusalem and Tel Aviv that have sent millions into shelters, Israelis are apparently more concerned about the domestic violence in their midst.
On May 12, after three days of rockets and riots, Bennett could no longer withstand the pressure of his political base, comprised mostly of right-wing, religious Israelis, against the historic coalition government he has been trying to form with centrist, left-wing and Arab parties.
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