Knesset Speaker Yuli (Yoel) Edelstein has a hard time seeing how Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s narrow, fourth government will manage to survive for more than a year unless it is expanded. On May 18, less than a week after the farce that was the swearing-in of Israel’s new, 34th government, after 9 p.m. in a tense and decidedly unfestive event, Edelstein told Al-Monitor that the 61-member coalition was unhealthy and that it could not last long. He believes that a unity government would be good for both the coalition and the opposition. In contrast, a new round of elections so close to the last one, on March 17, would be terrible for both sides and could result in a severe crisis of trust between the Knesset and the public.
Edelstein is one of the most senior members of the Likud Party. He came in second after Knesset member and former Minister Gilad Erdan in the primaries to determine the makeup of the Likud Knesset list, and asked the prime minister that he be allowed to continue in his position as speaker of the Knesset after the elections. In retrospect, this spared him the anguish, tension and disappointment faced by other top party members who expected to receive positions in the new government.
