Netanyahu Calls for Direct Election of Prime Minister to Break Deadlock

Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called for direct elections for prime minister in order to solve the country’s current political deadlock. Netanyahu made the remarks on Monday afternoon after meeting with right-wing political rival Naftali Bennett, whose Yamina party’s seven seats are key to him forming a government coalition.

Netanyahu said the idea of Bennett becoming a rotating prime minister in an anti-Netanyahu unity government would be “absurd.” He called for snap national elections for prime minister without dissolving the Knesset, which was elected last month in Israel’s fourth national election in two  years.

Meanwhile, the Islamist Raam party leader Mansour Abbas said he would be as willing to back a Bennett-led government as he would a government headed by Netanyahu.

Centrist Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid in his first news conference since the national elections last month on Sunday night pledged to establish a unity government along with Bennett and other parties in the anti-Netanyahu bloc if President Reuven Rivlin asks him to try to form a government should Netanyahu fail to do so. On Monday, Lapid panned the idea of direct election of the prime minister. Lapid received the second-most number of nominations to form a government after Netanyahu.

A bill that would mandate the direct election of the prime minister was submitted on Monday by lawmakers from the haredi Orthodox Shas party.