Israel parties race against the clock

Israeli politicians battling to unseat veteran Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were racing against the clock yesterday in talks to build a "change" coalition spanning the political spectrum. 

They have until a minute before midnight (2059 GMT)  to cobble together an alternative governing alliance that would bring down the right-wing leader known as Bibi, who has ruled Israel for the past 12 years.

The high-stakes push is led by former TV presenter Yair Lapid, a secular centrist, who on Sunday won the crucial support of right-wing religious nationalist Naftali Bennett, a tech millionaire.

"The coalition negotiation team sat all night and made progress toward creating a unity government," a Bennett spokesman said in a statement, adding that further talks were scheduled for the afternoon.

In order to gain a 61-seat majority in the 120-seat Knesset, their unlikely alliance would also have to include other left and right-wing parties and likely require the support of Arab-Israeli politicians.

In order to bring down the 71-year-old Netanyahu the fragile grouping would have to unite, despite their deep ideological differences on flashpoint issues such as Jewish settlements in the Israel-occupied West Bank.

Lapid, leader of the Yesh Atid party, was tasked with forming a government by President Reuven Rivlin after Netanyahu again failed to win a majority following Israel's fourth inconclusive election in less than two years.

Likud's lawyers tried to hobble the emerging coalition by challenging Bennett's right to serve first as prime minister, given that it was Lapid who was charged with forming the government. But the legal adviser to Israel's president knocked down the challenge.