Netanyahu accuses Livni and Lapid of planning 'putsch'

TEL AVIV - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has fired Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Finance Minister Yair Lapid from his government, and called for fresh elections to take place as “soon as possible.”

The move, announced Tuesday evening, comes less than a day after Netanyahu failed to reach an agreement with his coalition partners over key policy decisions, including the Jewish nation-state bill.

Livni heads up the centrist HaTnuah party, while Lapid, heads the centrist Yesh Atid party. The two parties account for 25 of the coalition's 68 seats and are seen as the most liberal in the otherwise right-wing coalition. The remaining government ministers from Yesh Atid have also been released from their duties. Livni was the only party member to form part of the Israeli cabinet.

Hours after announcing their removal, Netanyahu addressed the nation via a live televised address.

"In the current government we cannot lead the country, to keep the state security, to develop the economy and to take down the cost-of-living,” he said, in a move designed to speak directly about the key electoral issues in Israel.

"In Protective Edge [the war in Gaza this summer] we lead the country … but with this government it is harder to do what we need to do for the security and welfare of the citizens of Israel," he added.  

Elections were not due to take place until 2017, although analysts have been speculating that the vote might be pushed up to 2016, or even late 2015 for some time, largely due to growing rifts in the coalition.

According to various analysts quoted in local media, Netanyahu fired the pair to prevent them from resigning and gaining public support, for standing up for their principles.

Lapid had already warned late on Monday that he would resign after emergency talks with Netanyahu went south.

The pair are said to have clashed over the Jewish State bill, which passed through preliminary parliamentary stages late last month. The bill, which would formalise Israel’s status as a Jewish nation is highly controversial, but Netanyahu has refused to compromise on the wording and appears to be making the law a cornerstone of his policy going forth.

The insistence that Palestinians recognise Israel as a Jewish state; a firm stance on the Iranian nuclear issue, and the continuation of construction (an allusion for ongoing settlement growth in East Jerusalem) also featured prevalently in Netanyahu’s address.

Livni and Lapid, however, have regularly spoken out against these policies, Netanyahu said while accusing Livni of complaining that building in East Jerusalem was “not a responsible act" and slamming Lapid for hearing “new voices” on Iran.

Economic policies are also being blamed for the coalition split, with deep divisions emerging about the 2015 budged.

The cancelling of an 18 percent VAT charge for first time homebuyers has proved particularly contentious. The plan, a cornerstone of Lapid’s economic policy, was designed to make it easier for middle class families to buy their first apartment, on the condition that the new owners had served in the Israeli army or in national service, a clause that in effect limited the tax cut to overwhelmingly Jewish Israeli families.

Netanyahu, however, worked to delay the legal process, in a move seen as undercutting Lapid’s support.

According to Israel’s Channel 2, the price of the coming elections will be around 3 bn NIS ($730 mn), which is almost exactly how much Yair Lapid’s plan to cancel the flat VAT would have cost.

“Netanyahu is leading Israel into unnecessary elections. The prime minister has chosen to act irresponsibly with respect to the nation, and to put the needs of the Israeli public at the bottom of his agenda,” said a Yesh Atid statement, issued shortly before Netanyahu’s address.  

“Netanyahu prefers a deal he made with the Haredim [Ultra-orthodox Jews] on moving up the elections over the interests of all Israeli citizens,” the statement added.

Netanyahu, who heads the right-wing Likud party, refuted the claims, stressing that he did not have to do a deal with the ultra-orthodox parties to secure a new coalition.

"I do not have any deal with the ultra-orthodox, whoever blames me tried to close a deal himself and did not succeed," Netanyahu said.

Dimi Reider, a journalist and Associate Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told Middle East Eye that Netanyahu had wanted elections for some time.

According to Reider, Netanyahu had allowed various crises in the government to "explode" and was "just so insulting” at Monday’s emergency meeting that Lapid had to refuse and walk out of the government.”

This left Netanyahu “able to say ‘well I didn’t want elections, I wanted stable government, but it’s impossible to work with this person’. What Netanayahu wants is a right-wing government without all this Lapid nonsense and he’s probably going to get it,” Reider added.

Netanyahu has been quick to blast his two former coalition partners, accusing them of orchestrating a “putsch” against his leadership.

"A Finance Minister that fails to manage the economy, and [works in the dark] with the Justice Minister to act against the government and the one who leads it - this is called a putsch," Netanyahu said in his address.

The comments follow on from earlier statements in which he said that he would "will not tolerate an opposition from within the government".

Yet, recent months have been awash with mounting criticism from the left and the right, with critics saying that Netanyahu has tended to be mute when it comes to opposition from his right-wing coalition partners.

During the address, Netanyahu repeatedly dodged and refused to answer questions from Channel 2 journalists who kept asking why Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman and Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, who both hail from the Jewish Home party and have been repeatedly critical of Netanyahu, had also not been fired.

While Netanyahu has seen his popularity slide in recent months, he is still tipped to be the next prime minister, with an opinion poll published by the liberal Haaretz newspaper over the weekend, tipping him as the likely winner if an election were held today.

“Whoever wishes a strong government from the national political camp - from the centre to the right - I ask you to elect the Likud party, and to give me a real mandate to lead the people and the state,” Netanyahu added in his address, in a reference to traditional conservative block, or alliance, in the Knesset.

Reporting by Oren Ziv in Tel Aviv and Simona Sikimic in London