TEL AVIV, Israel (Washington Insider Magazine) – Israel’s parliament decided on Thursday to dissolve itself and hold elections for the 5th time in less than 4 years in November.
Just after midnight on Friday, Yair Lapid, the departing coalition government’s architect and Israel’s foreign minister, will take over as interim prime minister. He will succeed Naftali Bennett, Israel’s prime minister with the shortest tenure, becoming the 14th person to occupy the position.
An alliance of ideologically varied parties, the first to comprise an Arab group, overthrew veteran leader Benjamin Netanyahu after 12 years in office in an unprecedented coup that took place less than a year after the cabinet was established.
After days of wrangling between coalition and opposition politicians over the timing of fresh elections and other last-minute legislation, the resolution to dissolve was approved with 92 Legislators voting in favor and none against, according to NBC NEWS.
On November 1st, fresh elections will be held.
The decision officially ends a political trial in which 8 parties representing various political viewpoints in Israel attempted to find common interests following a protracted period of political impasse during which the nation staged 4 elections in 2 years.
The next polls are a continuation of the long-running political turmoil in Israel, which is centered on Netanyahu and his continuing corruption prosecution. The four impasse-filled elections during the preceding three years mostly tested Netanyahu’s suitability to hold office while being accused of taking bribes, betraying trust, and fraud. Any impropriety has been denied by Netanyahu.
As the major option to Netanyahu, Lapid, a former talk-show presenter and leader of a center-left party, is anticipated to run for the position of interim prime minister. He will likely receive a boost when President Joe Biden visits the nation next week.
Israeli media polls indicate that Netanyahu and his allies are picking up seats, but it’s not certain if they would be able to build a 61-seat majority in the 120-member Knesset. When neither he nor anybody else is able to accomplish this, Israel may have new elections.
Bennett said on Wednesday that he would be taking a break from politics and not be a candidate in the 2018 elections. Following the creation of the government last year, Bennett’s Yamina party was torn apart by internal strife and fragmented as its members broke away in opposition to what they saw as Bennett’s excessive concessions to the coalition’s more liberal friends.
The government’s failure to extend an emergency law, which most Israelis consider crucial and which protects the unique legal status of Jewish inhabitants in the disputed West Bank, dealt the death blow earlier this month. The emergency law was involuntarily extended until the election of a new administration since the Knesset was disbanded before the month’s conclusion.
By including an Arab party for the first time, the departing government coalition created history. Mansour Abbas, the head of the Islamist Ra’am faction, entered the coalition in an effort to improve services and increase government financing for Israel’s 20% Arab community.
Despite the fact that he allegedly courted the party during the previous elections, Netanyahu and his supporters blamed coalition members of working together with terrorist sympathisers.
Due to their deep family links to Palestinians in the disputed West Bank and Gaza and their strong support for their quest for independence, Israel’s Arab residents experience pervasive prejudice and are sometimes seen by Jewish Israelis as a fifth column.
