Israel’s deadlocked parliament on Wednesday failed to meet a midnight deadline to form a coalition government, triggering a third election in a 12-month period.
The move prolongs a year-long political stalemate that has paralyzed the government. The country now enters what once again is sure to be a bitter three-month political campaign that is expected to deliver similar results.
“Keep your children away from the television,” said Yair Lapid, a leader of the opposition Blue and White party, adding that the campaign would be a “festival of hate, violence and disgust.”
Photo: AFP
“What used to be a celebration of democracy has become a moment of shame for this building,” Lapid said.
“There are only three reasons for this election — bribery, fraud and breach of trust,” he said, referring to criminal charges filed last month against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Following the Sept. 17 vote, Netanyahu’s Likud party and the rival Blue and White, led by former military commander Benny Gantz, failed to cobble together a governing coalition. Then, during a final three-week window that ended on Wednesday, they were unable to agree on a power-sharing agreement or find an alternative leader.
Both men had insisted they want to avoid another costly election campaign.
Together, their parties control a solid majority in the 120-seat Knesset, but neither was willing to compromise on their core demands for a unity government.
Netanyahu insisted on serving as prime minister, while Gantz has refused to serve under a prime minister with such serious legal problems and called on Likud to choose a different leader.
Hours before the deadline, parliament took an initial step to dissolve itself on its own, but as speeches and committee work stretched into the night, the lawmakers passed only one of three required readings of the bill on time by a 91-0 margin.
Even after the deadline automatically dissolved parliament, lawmakers worked throughout the night to finalize the March 2 election date.
Netanyahu did not participate in the late-night parliamentary debate, but in a video on social media, he accused Gantz of courting Arab “terror supporters” and forcing new elections.
“To prevent this happening again, there is only one thing we must do: Win and win big,” he said.
The upcoming campaign is expected to cost the economy hundreds of millions of dollars and continue the paralysis until the middle of next year. With limited authority, a string of caretaker governments over the past year have frozen major legislation, key appointments, long-term planning, and budgets for the military and important government ministries.
For Netanyahu, the country’s longest-ever serving leader, a new campaign offers a lifeline, as Israeli law does not require a sitting prime minister to resign if charged with a crime.
Netanyahu can use his office to continue his attacks on prosecutors and police investigators, whom he has accused of staging an “attempted coup” against him.
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