In a statement issued by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s office on Monday night, he said the broken coalition of eight ideologically dissenting parties would submit a bill next week to dissolve parliament – legislation that, if passed, would force new elections and appoints Acting Foreign Minister Yair Lapid. Factions from the left, right and, for the first time, an independent Arab party have joined forces with Bennett and Lapid to oust Netanyahu from power a year ago, but the government has struggled to function since losing. its small majority in April. Monday’s decision appears to be a move to curb the Netanyahu-led opposition, which has warned it will submit its own bill to dissolve parliament later this week. Elections are expected in late October or November, after the completion of many major Jewish holidays. While Netanyahu’s Likud party is currently leading in the polls, it is unlikely that either its center-right bloc, not the center-left bloc led by Lapid, will win an overwhelming majority. Israel also held four ineffective elections between 2019 and 2021 that were largely referendums on the corruption scandal that plagued Netanyahu’s ability to rule while on trial for corruption, at an unprecedented time of political stalemate. The former leader denies any wrongdoing. Three separate lawsuits over allegations that he sought preferential treatment for a telecommunications company, sought favorable media coverage and received gifts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars are ongoing. The Bennett government can claim some success during its short tenure: it has formed a historic coalition. overdue budgets; guided Israel through the final stages of the pandemic without ordering a new lockdown; It has also largely eased tensions that led to a round of clashes between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that controls the Gaza Strip, and ethnically accused violence in the streets of Israeli cities last May. However, an agreement to focus on areas of common ground in government and avoid divisive issues such as the occupation of Palestinian territories proved difficult in practice: coalition architects spent much of their time pushing reluctantly to torpedo important legislation. Netanyahu, meanwhile, took advantage of the coalition’s divisiveness by encouraging the opposition to vote against any bill proposed by the coalition to further paralyze its opponents. The government lost its majority in Israel’s 120-seat parliament two months ago when a member of Bennett’s hardline Yamina party announced his resignation over compromises made by the prime minister to keep the coalition alive. Recent controversy over the renewal of a measure allowing Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank to live under Israeli law has sparked renewed frustration, with some Arab members of the coalition refusing to support it. The nationalist New Hope party, also part of the coalition, has threatened to pull out of the deal if the government fails to pass legislation on settlers. Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online. As such, the break-up threatens to derail a visit to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories by US President Joe Biden scheduled for mid-July. On Monday night, Israeli media quoted the US ambassador to Israel, Tom Naides, as saying that the president’s trip would take place as planned. Lapid is expected to host Biden during the state visit.
