re: #1 CuriousLurker

The Knesset is made up of 120 parlimentarians, and to govern, one must be able to get a majority of Parliament. In the last election, Likud was given the opportunity to form a coalition government (in Israel’s history, no single party has ever garnered sufficient seats to form a government on its own).

The need to create coalition governments means that minority parties can hold tremendous sway in the coalition governments - the religious parties for example can threaten to leave the government if their policies aren’t enacted/followed, for instance).

A few times in Israel’s history, the two biggest parties have joined together to form a unity government - particularly in times of need.

Netenyahu believes this was the right time to form a unity government, and that gives Netenyahu the numbers in the Knesset to take a policy stance that might push some of the minority parties to bolt.