Jerusalem | Israeli lawmakers voted to dissolve parliament early on Thursday, paving the way for a new election after veteran Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to form a coalition government before a midnight deadline.
The September 17 ballot will be Israel’s second this year. It spells unprecedented upheaval even for a country used to political infighting and is a big blow to Netanyahu, who had claimed victory in the last election on April 9.
Parliament’s 74-to-45 vote took place just minutes after a midnight deadline for Netanyahu to assemble his fifth government.
The turmoil arose – officially, at least – from a feud over military conscription between Netanyahu’s presumed allies: ex-defence minister Avigdor Lieberman, a far-right secularist, and ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties.
Those parties want young religious scholars exempted en masse from mandatory national service. But Lieberman and many other Israelis want them to share the burden.
Netanyahu denounced the draft spat as a “Kafkaesque” ruse.
“It’s just unbelievable. Avigdor Lieberman is now part of the left,” he told reporters. “It is perfectly clear that he wanted to topple this government . . . . to cobble together a few more votes.”
Yet the new ballot represents less of a setback for Netanyahu than the alternative in which Israel’s president, Reuven Rivlin, could have asked another politician to try to form a ruling coalition.
Faced with the prospect of having to step aside and watch one of his political rivals push him to the margins, Netanyahu instead drummed up votes to dissolve the 120-seat Knesset.
Read the article by Dan Williams in the Australian Financial Review.