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Israeli opposition parties reach deal to form government without Netanyahu

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A coalition of Israeli political parties, led by centrist Yair Lapid and right-wing leader Naftali Bennett, announced Wednesday that they have reached an agreement to form a new government. If passed by the parliament, it will end Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's 12-year tenure. CBS News senior foreign correspondent Elizabeth Palmer joins "CBSN AM" with details.

Video Transcript

- Israel's longest serving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may soon be out of power. That's because a coalition of opposition parties spearheaded by centralist leader Yair Lapid and right-wing leader Naftali Bennett announced yesterday that they have reached an agreement to form a new government. Elizabeth Palmer is following this for us. Elizabeth, good morning.

ELIZABETH PALMER: Good morning.

- So sort of give us the basics of what's going on here. This has got to be a major blow for Benjamin Netanyahu.

ELIZABETH PALMER: It really is. He's seen it coming. But the fact that all these disparate parties-- and we're talking centrist, very far right. And believe it or not, an Arab-focused party have managed to cobble together. A coalition has surprised everybody, including Benjamin Netanyahu.

Now that said, it's very fragile. You imagine the Israeli parliament, the Knesset-- it's got 120 seats in it. So these eight parties, in all, had to come up with 61 seats to get a parliamentary majority. And once they were able to do that, they could appoint a prime minister from one of the eight parties and go to the president, and say, look, we can form a government.

But the majority is razor thin. It's one seat, so this is not over yet. Specifically, the Knesset itself, all 120 members, have to vote on allowing that coalition to become the government next week. And already, Benjamin Netanyahu is horse trading like crazy behind the scenes, trying to erode it and to rob it of a seat or two, so it no longer has the majority it needs.

- I guess kind of one of the most obvious observations is that these parties actually don't have a lot in common, other than their desire to get rid of Benjamin Netanyahu. The parties differ when it comes to their stances on how to handle the Palestinian situation. What has the response been like from Palestinian and Arab officials to this?

ELIZABETH PALMER: Almost silence. There has been-- one very well-known Palestinian activist has said that at least Netanyahu's departure will allow him to properly go to trial on corruption charges. And that will be good for the country. But overall, there has been very little reaction, either among Palestinians and the Palestinian media or among Arab journalists in Arab countries.

One organization, a television station in the gulf, said that the Arab party joining that governing coalition was treason as far as they're concerned to the Palestinians, but it's been remarkably mute. Maybe we should say that Mansour Abbas, who leads the Raam party, that Arab party-- he's really focused on Israeli Arabs, so Arabs who live inside Israel. And he wants to get them things like better health care and more money.

So he hasn't really engaged with the larger Palestinian question. The Palestinians may be glad to see the back of Benjamin Netanyahu. But Naftali Bennett is not the man who is going to take Israel into serious peace talks. In fact, he's on the record as being opposed to an independent Palestinian state, so certainly no jubilation or even optimism rising in the Palestinian political circles.

- And you brought up something there, that while all of this is going on, while Benjamin Netanyahu is fighting to preserve his political life, he's also-- will possibly be fighting to preserve his future or rather his freedom, because he's facing bribery charges.

And the feeling was if he could still stay-- if his political career could stay alive, then perhaps he would be protected a little bit with his legal battles. But now that that looks like it's possibly winding down, what are people saying about the bribery charges that he's facing now?

ELIZABETH PALMER: Well, in fact, he is already on trial. So the trial started in May. And his lawyers are in court today, arguing, putting forward a defense to a multi-faceted charges list. You know, there's cronyism. And there was bribery, and accepting gifts, and some business chicanery. I mean, it's really complicated and copious.

So he was not prevented from being on trial, because he was the prime minister. Although, he had to give up any ministerial portfolios he had. But he was on trial as the prime minister. There was some speculation that if he got into power again, he would try and pass a law protecting himself from legal proceedings.

So if he is, in fact, removed from the prime ministership, that's it. Then he will have to see this trial through to the bitter end. And it's going to be long and complex. And of course, people in Israel on both sides are following very closely. It's a national drama.

- I bet. Liz, thank you very much.

ELIZABETH PALMER: Pleasure.

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