JERUSALEM, Dec 22: Israel appeared headed to its fourth election in two years on Tuesday after a last-ditch effort to keep the government afloat and push off the automatic dissolution of parliament failed.
Negotiations meant to bring about a budget compromise between the government’s two main parties broke down early Tuesday and in a late-night Knesset session, members of the Likud and Blue and White parties voted against a proposal to postpone Tuesday’s budget deadline for another two weeks. The measure failed by 49 votes to 47.
If the government does not pass a budget by midnight Tuesday, Israeli law stipulates that the Knesset dissolve and triggers snap elections in 90 days. Most avenues to evade that deadline have been closed off.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud and Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party have been at loggerheads over the national budget issue since forming a unity government in May.
Netanyahu and Gantz had proposed pushing off Tuesday’s deadline by two more weeks in an effort to reach a compromise on the 2020 budget. But members of their own parties voted against the motion in a late-night, 11th hour break from party ranks.
“We do not want elections and we voted against them this evening, but we are not afraid of elections — because we will win!” the prime minister wrote on Twitter.
Once parliament dissolves, Israelis will head to the polls in March for a fourth time since early 2019, this time in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, a major economic recession, and while Netanyahu is on trial for a series of corruption charges.
Netanyahu also faces a challenger from within his own camp, Gideon Saar, who broke from the Likud party earlier this month and has called for the long-ruling prime minister’s ouster. Several members of Netanyahu’s party who shot down Tuesday’s proposal are expected to join ranks with Saar.
