Danny Danon to Newsmax TV: Netanyahu Faces 'Tough Negotiations' for Coalition

Danny Danon, Israel’s permanent representative to the United Nations, told “The National Report” on Newsmax TV Tuesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will negotiate with small parties to reach a majority and form a new government following the country’s parliamentary elections.

“Yesterday, Prime Minister Netanyahu got the support of the Israeli public to form a new government,” Danon said, adding that “the president, within a few days, would give the mandate to form a new government.”

He warned that “it will not be easy” for Netanyahu, since his coalition fell just shy of winning the 61 seats needed for a majority in the Knesset, meaning “it’s going to be tough negotiations” to form a new government.

Danon said that without a majority, Netanyahu will “now have to negotiate with small parties, bring them into the coalition,” and “convince some people from the other side to move to his coalition. In the next few days you’re going to hear about negotiations, about offers, and hopefully they will do it as soon as possible, because it is about time we had a strong, functioning government.”

When asked what made the prime minister’s opponent, Benny Gantz of the centrist Blue and White party, so popular, Danon said that President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Israel and Palestine may have pushed the election in Netanyahu’s favor.

He added that the plan is “interesting and serious,” but said that “still we need the Palestinians,” who have rejected Trump’s proposal.

“We cannot negotiate with the U.S., so we would have to wait until we find a viable partner, I don’t think it will be [Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas], maybe somebody else, that will sit down and negotiate peace with us," he said. "We proved in the past, once we negotiated with Egypt and Jordan, we are capable of making compromises, we are capable of negotiating and signing agreements, but we need a partner for that.”

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