Today at midnight: The Knesset will dissolve – and Israel will go to the polls for the fourth time in two years

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Seven months after it was formed, the government failed to pass a budget, and what was already clear in recent days became official tonight (Tuesday) at midnight: Israel goes to the polls for the fourth time in two years.

Netanyahu: “Ganz folds against Nissenkorn, which imposes a dictatorship of officials” // From Benjamin Netanyahu’s Facebook page

On Monday evening, the last attempt to save the 35th Knesset from dispersal was thwarted by a law that postponed the deadline for transferring the budget, after four coalition members, three from the Blue and White Party – Assaf Zamir, Miki Haimovich and Ram Shefa, and MK Michal Shir from the Likud (since Has already announced its support for Gideon Saar’s party, voted against the law, and it fell by a majority of opponents – 49 to 47 supporters.

Last night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the crisis and blamed Defense Minister and Blue and White Speaker Bnei Gantz, and Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn for dissolving the Knesset. “It’s no secret, I did not want elections,” Netanyahu said. Including last night, and unfortunately Ganz has returned from the agreements between us and he is dragging Israel to the polls because of internal struggles. He is dragging Israel to the polls because of his insistence on keeping Nissenkorn in office. We can not let this happen, it is a wrong decision of blue and white, but if they force elections on us, I promise you that we will win. “

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The map of the parties that will run in the elections to the 24th Knesset will be very different from that of the current Knesset. Blue and white has actually collapsed, and it is doubtful whether it will reach the polls; Gideon Saar left the Likud and formed a new party that seems to be the main factor threatening the continuation of Benjamin Netanyahu’s rule; Between Ofer Shelach and Yair Lapid passed a black cat; And new players are waiting on the bench, led by former chief of staff Izenkot and Tel Aviv mayor Ron Huldai. It is also possible that, for the first time in the country’s history, Mapai’s decline in its various incarnations will not run in the elections.

Many of the political commentators – as usual – are already in a hurry to eulogize Netanyahu, who is indeed facing a particularly difficult challenge. However, polls by television channels published last night showed that the Likud led by him still leads Saar’s party by about ten seats. The bloc that opposes Netanyahu enjoys a small advantage of 62 to 64 seats – provided that very different parties in their ideological views, such as the joint list and Saar’s party, succeed in forming a government together led by an agreed candidate.

From the beginning of the government’s path, it was clear that trust between its two main components – Blue and White and the Likud – did not exist, but the Corona crisis, which was still in its infancy at the time, forced Netanyahu and Gantz, after three undecided elections, to reach an agreement.

Will get along with the joint list? Gideon Saar // Photo: Oren Ben Hakon

The unity government was a strange political creature from the moment it was created, and its establishment was accompanied by agreements formulated in detail, a change in the Basic Law, and even the establishment of a new role, an Israeli global renewal – the role of the replacement prime minister. But it soon became clear that despite the agreements and despite the fine words on the day of the swearing-in of the government, the quarrels of the election period continued – within the government.

In blue and white, they tried to promote appointments, although the mechanism agreed upon in the coalition agreement was not established, and in response, the Likud rejected the transfer of the budget. Last August, the date on which the 2020 budget was supposed to pass, a compromise was initiated by MK Zvi Hauser, and has given the Knesset an extension until today. But in December, Hauser moved from the Bnei Gantz bloc to Saar’s new party, becoming one of the main opponents of any compromise.

Last night’s events largely represented the conduct of the 35th government since its inception, but the question remains whether the 24th Knesset, which will be elected in 91 days, will succeed in ending the two-year political crisis in which Israel finds itself.

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