Israel’s Netanyahu Calls for ‘Emergency’ Government to Counter Coronavirus

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, seen as being several seats short of establishing a right-wing coalition following last week’s election, is now calling for a “broad, national, emergency government” in light of the coronavirus pandemic. Israel has closed schools, banned gatherings of over 100 people and issued harsh border and quarantine measures in an effort to avoid a major domestic outbreak of COVID-19, as the World Health Organization calls the illness caused by coronavirus. As of Friday morning, there were 126 cases in the country, although no deaths. Following Netanyahu’s Thursday-evening call for a unity government, he reportedly spoke by phone with Benny Gantz, his main political rival. Although Gantz’s centrist Blue and White list received fewer votes in the election than did Netanyahu’s Likud, the challenger has been seeking to establish a minority government with support from the outside by Arab lawmakers. The idea for an “emergency” coalition was initially floated earlier on Thursday by the head of an ultra-Orthodox party, a Netanyahu ally who fears he will be left out of a Gantz-led minority government.