Two members of the outgoing coalition government vowed on Tuesday to prevent a comeback by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the country braced for a fifth election in three years with polling predicting no clear winner. Sapped by infighting that ended his razor-thin parliamentary majority, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Monday announced he would move to dissolve the Knesset, with Foreign Minister Yair Lapid assuming top office in a caretaker capacity.
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A preliminary vote on that motion is set for Wednesday. The prospect of an election as early as October – delighted Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving leader who was toppled a year ago after Bennett mustered a rare coalition of hard-right, liberal and Arab politicians. "Something great happened here," Netanyahu declared on Monday, saying that his conservative Likud party would lead the next government. Surveys have consistently given Likud around 30 of parliament's 120 seats - which would make it the biggest party but would require Netanyahu to sign up like-minded allies, including among current partners in Bennett's coalition. Two of those – Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Justice Minister Gideon Saar – ruled out joining forces with Netanyahu, who is on trial on corruption charges he denies.
"I won't be bringing Bibi (Netanyahu) back. All of the party members are with me. No one will succumb to inducements (to defect to Likud)," Saar told Army Radio. Lieberman said at a conference that coalition lawmakers may link the motion to dissolve the Knesset to a bill that would prevent anyone under criminal indictment from heading a government. But a Knesset spokesman said such linkage was not technically possible in the voting scheduled for Wednesday. In his last two years in office, Netanyahu's legal woes denied him the solid right-wing coalition he sought through four elections.
Israel National News reported that the announcement of the government's dissolution had caught Defense Minister Benny Gantz off guard. Gantz said it was "a pity" that the country had to face another election, and promised that the transition government would accomplish as much as possible.
Israel Hayom has learned that members of the opposition from the United Torah Judaism faction have contacted Gantz shortly after the news broke in an effort to secure his support for a new coalition government headed by Netanyahu even without having the Knesset disperse.
According to information obtained by Israel Hayom, UTJ chief MK Moshe Gafni has been spearheading this effort vis-a-vis Gantz. The opposition has been telling Gantz that by joining forces and denying Lapid from assuming the role of the prime minister of a transition government he would remain relevant and that if an election is averted, former IDF Chief Gadi Eizenkot won't run, thus cementing Gantz position as the prominent security heavyweight in the Knesset. Gantz was also told that he could claim credit for denying extremists a chance to gain strength in an election. Gantz, however, rebuffed the opposition and appears poised to remain in the anti-Netanyahu camp.
A poll aired by Tel Aviv radio station 103 FM on Tuesday found that Netanyahu and likely rightist or ultra-Orthodox Jewish allies could command 59 parliament seats in the next vote, versus 55 predicted for parties in the current coalition. An Arab party not expected to back either bloc got six seats.
The eventual political map could change, however, if smaller parties disappear or join forces – or if Netanyahu or Lapid, whose centrist Yesh Atid party is polling in second place, manage to reach across to less-likely partners.
The election announcement had no immediate impact on financial markets, which are used to the political uncertainty. The main indexes on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange were slightly up and the shekel was stronger against the dollar.
Bennett cited the coalition's failure earlier this month to extend a law that grants West Bank settlers special legal status as the main impetus for new elections. His key ally, Lapid, will become the prime minister until a new government is formed, due to a rotating premiership deal. Welfare and Social Services Minister Meir Cohen, a member of Lapid's Yesh Atid party, told Israeli public broadcaster Kan that the coalition would bring the bill to a preliminary vote on Wednesday.
"We hope that within a week we will complete the process," Cohen said. "The intention is to finish it as soon as possible and to go to elections." A parliamentary committee approved holding a preliminary vote to dissolve parliament on Wednesday, with a final vote expected early next week.
Netanyahu is currently on trial for corruption but has denied any wrongdoing, dismissing the charges as a witch hunt by his political opponents. Israeli law does not explicitly state that a politician under indictment may not become prime minister. As politicians gear up for fall elections, several coalition members have floated the possibility of passing a law before the Knesset disbands that would bar a lawmaker on trial from being tapped by the president to form a government, although in the case his party wins enough seats the law would theoretically be scraped right after the election.
Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the aim of his Yisrael Beytenu party in the upcoming elections is "to prevent Benjamin Netanyahu from returning to power." Along with the bill to dissolve parliament, he said he would advance legislation on Wednesday to bar a lawmaker under indictment from assuming the premiership. "I hope that bill, too, will find a majority," he said at an economic conference hosted by the Israel Democracy Institute. Justice Minister Gideon Saar, leader of the New Hope party, told Army Radio that his faction had advocated such a bill and would vote in favor if it's brought before parliament.
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