Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, was automatically dissolved as required by the country’s law after a deadline to pass the 2020 state budget expired. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s fractured ruling coalition, the Unity Government, failed to pass a budget, triggering the country’s fourth election in two years. Last-ditch attempts to pass the budget by allowing more time was voted down, resulting in the automatic collapse of the government.
Netanyahu, leader of the right-wing Likud party and his political rival, Defence Minister Benny Gantz, of the centrist Blue and White Party established a unity government in May in the wake of three inconclusive elections held since April 2019, but the coalition had been inching towards collapse for weeks, undermined by mutual acrimony and mistrust.
Hours before the midnight deadline expired, Netanyahu and Benny Gantz blamed each other for the crisis.
Speaking to reporters before the vote in Knesset, Netanyahu said “If an election is forced upon us, I promise you that we will win” and blamed Gantz for the early ballot. Support for Gantz in opinion polls has plunged over the last few months. After the dissolution, Netanyahu in his televised address reiterated that he did not want this election. “Likud did not want this election. We have voted again and again against elections. Unfortunately, Benny Gantz reneged on his agreements with us”, he said. He claimed Likud would “win big” at the poll, due on 23 March.
Gantz said the prime minister’s remarks were “more lies than words”. He said Netanyahu wanted to trigger the election in a bid to avoid his corruption trial. Gantz has said he never trusted Netanyahu but wanted to spare Israelis the fourth election, especially as the pandemic was gathering pace. “Netanyahu is taking us to an election for the sole purpose of not entering the courtroom,” Gantz wrote on Twitter.
The unity government was sworn in after the longest political crisis in the country’s history. Under a power-sharing deal agreed in April, PM Benjamin Netanyahu was to serve for 18 months. His rival-turned-partner Benny Gantz was slated to serve as deputy PM, before taking over. The two had agreed to press ahead with a plan to annex part of the occupied West Bank – a process that got underway in July 2019.
With the fall of the unity government, Israeli voters will return to the polls in March, just 12 months after the last round. Two previous elections were inconclusive, resulting in a rare government composed of political rivals. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is hoping to return to the office for the sixth time.
Netanyahu will remain prime minister until a new government is formed after the election. Now 71, he first served in the post from 1996 to 1999 and has held the office since 2009.
Balaji Subramanian 
Dhruv Ashok 
Aayush Pal