Announcing the date for the arrogance vote, speaker Yariv Levin, a Netanyahu ally, said on Tuesday "a session of parliament" would debate and vote on the delicate eight-party alliance, after the country's fourth inconclusive election in two years back in March.
After weeks of political wrangling the Israeli parliament is about to vote Sunday on whether to put in a "change" coalition and end Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's record 12 consecutive years in power.
Announcing the date for the arrogance vote, speaker Yariv Levin, a Netanyahu ally, said on Tuesday "a session of parliament" would debate and vote on the delicate eight-party alliance, after the country's fourth inconclusive election in two years back in March.
Later within the day, the prime minister's office announced that a march by Jewish nationalists through Jerusalem would plow ahead during a week's time, potentially re-escalating tensions with Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group which visited war with the Jewish state for 11 days last month.
Israeli right-wing groups had the day before cancelled plans for the controversial march, originally thanks to happen this Thursday, citing Israeli police restrictions, and as Hamas warned that the route could spark new violence.Divisive incumbent Netanyahu has dominated Israeli politics for quite a decade, pushing it firmly to the proper .
If Sunday's crunch parliamentary vote hands a majority to the coalition, which is united only by hostility to Netanyahu's rule, it might spell the top of an era.
Since the nascent coalition was announced last week, Netanyahu has lived up to his reputation as a ruthless political operator, piling pressure on right-wingers within its ranks to reject this "dangerous left-wing government".
The anti-Netanyahu bloc includes three right-wing, two centrist and two left-wing parties, along side an Arab Islamic Conservative Party .
On paper it commands a wafer-thin majority, but Netanyahu has urged his supporters to shame right-wing lawmakers into walking faraway from the potential alliance.The Israeli political drama is playing out as tensions with the Palestinians smoulder, with police cracking down on demonstrations over the threatened eviction of Palestinian families from homes in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem to form way for Jewish settlers.
Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Tuesday that cabinet had approved a choice to carry the so-called March of the Flags next Tuesday, adding that it might plow ahead during a format to "be agreed by police and organisers".
The decision had been agreed by both the prime minister and his defence minister Benny Gantz, before it had been put to the cupboard , the premier's office said.
The event had previously been thanks to proceed through flashpoint areas of east Jerusalem that have seen repeated clashes recently between Israeli police and Palestinians.
A top Hamas official, Khalil al-Hayya, had warned Israel Monday "against letting the march approach east Jerusalem and therefore the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound".
"We hope the message is obvious in order that Thursday doesn't become (a new) May 10," he said, in regard to the beginning of the 11-day war which Hamas launched in response to tensions at the mosque compound, Islam's third-holiest site, which is additionally revered by Jews.
Netanyahu had convened a late-night meeting Monday with senior officialdom to debate alternatives that would allow the march to proceed -- a move that saw his opponents accuse him and his allies of working to ratchet up tensions as his grip on power grows increasingly shaky.
Labor MP Gilad Kariv, a supporter of the coalition, called the move "another chapter within the outgoing government's plan to leave a scorched earth".
If the new government is confirmed, Netanyahu's right-wing opponent Naftali Bennett would function premier for 2 years, after which the "change" coalition's centrist architect, Yair Lapid, would take over.
"The unity government is on the way and prepared to figure on behalf of all the people of Israel," Lapid, a former television presenter, said during a statement following the announcement of the vote.
Netanyahu, who faces corruption charges that would end in jail time, has refused to travel without a messy fight.
Bitter recriminations within the Israeli right and much right prompted Israeli security services to issue a rare warning against incitement online, which Netanyahu's opponents say was a warning to the prime minister.
Alarm has grown over angry rallies by supporters of Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party, including protests outside the homes of right-wing lawmakers accused of "betrayal" for joining the coalition. Security has been stepped up for a few of the MPs.
The 71-year-old prime minister has rejected allegations of incitement, saying "there may be a very thin line between political criticism and inciting violence".
Bennett, who served as Netanyahu's aide before turning against him, has urged his former boss to "let go".
Should 11th-hour defections torpedo the fledgling coalition, Israel would likely need to return to the polls for a fifth election in only over two years
