The development was the first step in a series of votes before the formal dissolution of the 120-seat Knesset. It came two days after Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced he was disbanding his governing coalition of eight different ideological parties just over a year after taking office. The historic coalition, which ousted longtime leader Benjamin Netanyahu, has been ravaged by internal strife and insurgency in recent months. It included parties committed to a two-state solution with the Palestinians, hawkish supranationalists opposed to a Palestinian state and a small Islamist faction, the first Arab party to join a government. A number of proposals for the dissolution of parliament were voted on by the vast majority of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament. However, a final vote is needed on at least one of the proposals in order to dissolve parliament, and this is expected to take place next week. Once in office, Bennett will step down as prime minister and hand over the reins to his ally, Secretary of State Yair Lapid. New elections are expected in October. Bennett and Lapid formed the coalition of their parties that united solely in opposition to Netanyahu last year after four failed elections in 2019, 2020 and 2021. Parliament was at a dead end between those who supported a government under Netanyahu and those who refused to join forces with him. had been charged with corruption. Netanyahu is on trial and charged with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three high-profile cases. He has denied any wrongdoing and has repeatedly denied the allegations as part of a witch-hunt to oust him from office. Early polls released Tuesday show Netanyahu’s Likud party will remain the largest party in parliament, but the path to a majority coalition remains unclear. Following the vote, Bennett wrote on Twitter that he would vote against the proposed legislation, which would bar a lawmaker accused of committing a crime from becoming prime minister. Several senior coalition officials said this week that they would push for such a bill, which would effectively bar Netanyahu from re-taking office. Bennett said that “certainly on the eve of the election, no one can try to change the rules of the game” and that Israeli voters must decide who will take office.
