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MOSCOW (Sputnik) – On Tuesday, Israel will have yet another chance to decide the fate of the country’s unicameral national legislature, the Knesset, as the most recent unity government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lasted only six months since it was formed.
Three Knesset elections have happened in three years. One in April 2019, another one in September of the same year, yet another one in March last year. Twice have the winning parties failed to form a majority coalition and create a new government.
Following the third election, it took Netanyahu and his opponent, Benny Gantz, the country’s defense minister and a leader of the centrist Blue and White political bloc, nearly two months to agree to form a national unity government. Under the agreement, Gantz was supposed to replace Netanyahu in the prime minister’s chair in a rotation order in November 2021. However, the coalition has since collapsed.
In late December, the 23rd Knesset convocation was dissolved, which automatically pushed Israel toward the fourth round of elections, as the parliament failed to pass the 2020 state budget on time.
Shortly before the Knesset self-dissolution, former Interior Minister Gideon Saar quit the Netanyahu-led ruling Likud party to establish his own faction, now known as Tikva Hadasha (New Hope) of the center-right political axis, and announced plans to run for premiership during the upcoming vote.
Beside him, several other politicians and Knesset lawmakers left Likud amid dismay over Netanyahu’s prolonged mandate. Netanyahu has also been questioned in several cases related to corruption.
In the beginning of January, Saar and former Defense Minister Naftali Bennett, the Yamina party leader, reportedly signed an agreement to share extra votes between their parties to oppose Netanyahu’s candidacy. However, this agreement seems to have collapsed just days before the election as Bennet signed a pledge to reject a government should it be led by the opposition leader, Yair Lapid. Saar took this as a sign of Bennet potentially allying with Netanyahu. The Jerusalem Post reported, citing source, that Bennet’s alleged attempt to besmirch Saar’s party by leaking a fake poll may have played a role.
As per the results of the upcoming election, the winning party will have to form a new coalition government based on a 61-seat parliamentary majority in the 120-seat Knesset. According to various polls, the odds of forming a stable coalition are rather slim.
Latest polls collected by Haaretz newspaper were showing Likud leading and Lapid’s opposition Yesh Atid lagging behind by about 10 percentage points. However, neither appears to have a clear majority.
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