Image by Getty Images

Image by Getty Images

The walkout by the far-right Lieberman raised the prospect that Netanyahu, whose conservative Likud party won the most votes in a March 17 election, may have to settle for a narrower alliance to secure a majority in the 120-seat parliament.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

That could hobble the fourth-term premier, whose domestic policies are often resented at home while his championing of Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, lands the Palestinians seek for a state, is opposed abroad.

Netanyahu could ask the leading center-left opposition party Zionist Union to join forces in a “national unity” government, though both sides have so far played down any such possibility.

Briefing reporters, Lieberman said his party had been offered two cabinet posts as part of the coalition talks but remained unsatisfied.

“This is certainly a coalition that, to my regret, does not reflect the positions of the nationalist camp and is not to our liking, to put it mildly,” said Lieberman, adding that he was resigning as foreign minister.

Netanyahu last week signed up his first new coalition partners, the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism (UTJ) party and centrist Kulanu, giving him control of 46 parliament seats.

Likud is still negotiating with the far-right Jewish Home and ultra-Orthodox Shas parties.

Lieberman’s Yisrael Beitenu party draws support from Israelis who immigrated from the former Soviet Union and has often come out against benefits for ultra-Orthodox constituents.

Lieberman also complained that legislation anchoring in law Israel’s identity as a Jewish state, which had been advanced by the outgoing government, was being played down in the current coalition talks.

Shelly Yachimovich, a senior Zionist Union lawmaker, did not rule out her party joining Netanyahu but said it appeared unlikely.

“I don’t see an option like this,” she told Israel’s parliamentary television station. “It would be silly of me to consider something that does not exist.”

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount