JERUSALEM — A spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said on Thursday that he was reserving the post of foreign minister for Isaac Herzog of the center-left Zionist Union, in hopes of expanding the razor-thin majority government he just formed into a broad one of national unity.
But Mr. Herzog, whose party finished second behind Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud in the elections on March 17, said of his faction: “We will not be a fifth wheel and have no intention of saving Netanyahu from the hole he has dug for himself.” He promised instead to lead “a fighting, consolidated, strong opposition” aimed at bringing down the government.
The conservative Likud Party and the more-conservative Jewish Home party continued negotiating through the night before signing a deal at 10 a.m. Thursday that seals Mr. Netanyahu’s fourth term but leaves him in a precarious spot, with 61 of Parliament’s 120 seats, the slimmest majority in two decades.
After drawn-out, fraught negotiations with potential partners who are also political rivals, Mr. Netanyahu found himself racing to meet the deadline to form a government, despite his clear election mandate to do so. The new government is expected to be sworn in on Wednesday.
The leader of the center-right Kulanu Party, Moshe Kahlon, gained an influential foothold with control of the Finance Ministry. Jewish Home got the Education, Justice and Agriculture Ministries, after gaining leverage with Monday’s announcement that Avigdor Lieberman’s ultranationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party would not join the government.
The agreement signed on Thursday rewards the Jewish Home’s prime constituencies of settlers in the occupied West Bank and modern-Orthodox military families. It would increase the budget of the Education Ministry, to be headed by the party chief, Naftali Bennett, and of Ariel University, whose West Bank location makes it controversial; swell the salaries of soldiers in their third year of mandatory service; and armor buses serving settlements.
Moshe Yaalon of Likud is expected to stay on as defense minister. But with many significant posts having been distributed to the other parties, analysts said Mr. Netanyahu could now face an uprising from politicians in his own party who are competing for reduced spoils. One of the government’s first moves could be to change the law that limits the cabinet to 18 ministers, to satisfy disgruntled senior members of Likud.
Palestinian leaders were quick to denounce the new government as extremist and racist, saying it would expand settlements that most of the world considers illegal and would do nothing to promote peace or a Palestinian state.
Hanna Amira, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee, said on Voice of Palestine radio that the government was “naked before international public opinion” because it lacks “a fig leaf like the last one,” a reference to centrist ministers who pushed for peace talks that eased pressure on Israel from the United States and Europe.
Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said in a statement that Mr. Netanyahu was “vehemently leading the charge to bury the two-state solution and impose a perpetual Apartheid regime.” He called on the world to support the Palestinian campaign for independence in the United Nations Security Council, and the prosecution of Israelis for war crimes in the International Criminal Court.
Many Palestinians, as well as liberal Israelis, were particularly outraged at the appointment of Ayelet Shaked of Jewish Home as justice minister. Ms. Shaked has promoted contentious legislation in the past and advocates curbing the powers of the Supreme Court. Last summer, she was accused of promoting genocide after she posted on Facebook an old article that described Palestinian youth who are killed while attacking Israelis as “snakes” and suggested their mothers should “follow in their sons’ footsteps.”
Nir Orbach, director general of Jewish Home, defended Ms. Shaked on Israel Radio. “I know her well,’’ he said. “She’s here to work, not fight.”
A spokesman for Likud, Nir Hefetz, said in an earlier radio interview that the prime minister was keeping open the Foreign Ministry portfolio “because he really wants to leave room for the government to expand in the future.” Asked directly whether this was in hopes of wooing Mr. Herzog, Mr. Hefetz responded, “Yes.”
Getting Mr. Herzog — who has called for freezing construction in far-flung settlements and renewing negotiations with the Palestinians — as foreign minister would improve Israel’s relations with the United States, which are at their lowest point in decades, and could fend off promised punishments by Europe. But Mr. Herzog said on Thursday that “the big problem is not this or that role.”
“The big problem is what Benjamin Netanyahu wants,” Mr. Herzog told Israel Radio. “The most dangerous thing is that its agenda will go with all its strength against our very dear principles, both domestic and foreign. It will bring us to collision with the diplomatic iceberg. It will bring us to a very dangerous domestic struggle on the fundamental principles of democracy.”
Eitan Haber, a veteran Israeli commentator and a former aide to Yitzhak Rabin, the peace-seeking prime minister from the Labor Party, expressed concern about a government with such a narrow majority.
“The coalition chairman is going to have to be a magician and a contortionist,” Mr. Haber wrote in the popular newspaper Yediot Aharonot. Coalition lawmakers would “barely be able to step out to the washroom,” he said, lest the opposition have more people present for votes.
“A government of that kind can look forward to holding lengthy and difficult discussions deep into the night in an attempt to find solutions to the state of Israel’s security, economic and social problems,” he added. “With such a small majority, normal life will become all but impossible in the next number of months.”
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