Israeli lawmakers yesterday passed the country’s first state budget in three years in a victory for the ideologically disparate coalition that unseated former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in June.
Members of the Israeli Knesset approved a 609 billion shekel (US$195 billion) spending plan for this year and were to resume debate later in the day on a 573 billion shekel package for next year.
“Celebration day for the state of Israel,” Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett wrote on Twitter after the vote.
“After years of chaos, we have formed a government, we have conquered Delta [variant of SARS-CoV-2] and now, praise God, we have passed a budget for Israel,” he added.
The stakes could not have been higher for Bennett, a right-wing religious nationalist whose coalition of hawks, centrists, left-wingers and Islamists controls just 61 of the 120 seats in parliament.
His coalition had until Nov. 14 to get the budget approved to prevent parliament from being dissolved, which would have forced a fifth election in three years.
Israel had not passed a state budget during that time, a symptom of the unprecedented political gridlock that plagued the country from December 2018 until when Bennett’s government was sworn in.
It took until 5am for parliament members to complete the vote on this year’s budget with hundreds of spending measures requiring individual votes through the night.
However, there had been fears that the process might take days with now opposition leader Netanyahu playing the role of spoiler for the government that finally brought an end to his 12 consecutive years in power.
Commentators said that the ease and relative speed with which the budget passed showed that the coalition could hold together even with its deep ideological differences and its wafer-thin majority.
Netanyahu had addressed lawmakers during the debate, accusing Bennett of leading “a government of liars.”
“We must bring down this irresponsible government,” he told lawmakers.
Bennett retorted that the opposition under the former prime minister’s leadership was seeking only “chaos.”
“We want stability,” he said.
It was a budget deadlock that sank the last, short-lived coalition led by Netanyahu and his alternate prime minister, Benny Gantz.
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