Israel’s Prime Minister has reached a deal with other parties to form a coalition government according to various government sources.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud-Yisrael Beitenu party will work with the centrist Yesh Atid and Hatnua and a far-right party, Jewish Home. The negotiations took five weeks after the January 22nd election.
Reports say that it will be the smallest Israeli government in years with only 21 ministers other than the Prime Minister. Yesh Atid is expected to have the ministerial positions related to finance and education while Netanyahu’s party will control the interior ministry.
The move comes just ahead of the first visit to Israel by U.S. President Obama since his 2008 election.
Netanyahu called for early elections because he said that his coalition partners would not work together to make a “responsible budget” for the country that would include austerity measures. His party lost ¼ of its seats in the election making it harder to form a coalition that would control the Knesset.
