MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Israel: Netanyahu has 6 weeks for new coalition government

New PM Benyamin Netanyahu

Shimon Peres, Israel's president, has chosen Benyamin Netanyahu, the leader of the Likud party, to form a new coalition government within six weeks.

Peres and Netanyahu held a press conference in Jerusalem on Friday where Netanyahu accepted the offer. "I hereby designate Benyamin Netanyahu to form the upcoming government ... there are many challenges ahead," Peres said. He added that parties representing 65 lawmakers backed Netanyahu to become prime minister. Netanyahu said that he now had a "responsibility to establish security in our state and to establish peace with our neighbours." He emphasised the need for political unity saying: "Lets join hands and cooperate to ensure the future of Israel." Netanyahu will now have to negotiate with other parties to form a coalition government. He said that he wanted to form a broad coalition government including Tzipi Livni, leader of the Kadima party and Netanyahu's main rival, and the Labour party. Earlier on Friday Livni rejected entering into a coalition with the rightwing leader. "I will not be a pawn in a government that would be against our ideals," she said after meeting Peres. "Things are clear. What is being created is a government without political vision, a government with no values." "We need a government based on a two-state solution," Livni said, referring to Netanyahu's stance on negotiating peace with the Palestinians. While Kadima won one more seat than Likud in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, during general elections on February 10, the president traditionally asks the party most likely to be able to form a coalition to lead the new government. Netanyahu's bid for prime minister was boosted on Thursday when he won the backing of Avigdor Lieberman, the leader of the far-right Yisrael Beitenu party. Al Jazeera's Rob Gilles, reporting from Jerusalem, said that while Netanyahu is being asked to lead the government, his prime ministership is "far from a done deal". "Yesterday, 65 MPs pledged their support to him, but to actually get those pledges turned into real action, he has to do some horse-trading with the various parties. He has to offer them certain positions." "If those positions are offered and they agree, then those pledges will be turned into firm offers, in which case, he will have enough to form a [government]." The rise of Lieberman's Yisrael Beitenu in general elections and the choice of Netanyahu to lead a new government represents an apparent shift to the right in Israeli politics. Despite this, Gideon Levy, a columnist for the Haaretz newspaper, said he expected "more of the same" from a new coalition government. "I think the rhetorics of the new government will be different, but I'm not sure the deeds will be so different. Don't forget that the key is still in Washington," he told Al Jazeera. "The right-wing parties are so eager to be joined by the central parties like Kadima because they know that this right-wing policy will not be accepted in Washington, and will not lead to anywhere." (Al Jazeera)