Israel faces fourth election in two years after budget bill rejected

Israeli MPs on Tuesday rejected a bill to give the government more time to pass a budget, raising the likelihood that parliament will dissolve and force a fourth election in less than two years.

Israel’s coalition government — a broken marriage between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his political rival, Defence Minister Benny Gantz — has been inching towards collapse for weeks.

Under the current arrangement between Mr Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud and Mr Gantz’s centre-left Blue and White, the coalition has until one minute past midnight on Wednesday to agree on a budget for the current year. If a 2020 budget is not passed, Israel’s 120 seat parliament, the Knesset, would dissolve, with new elections held as early as March.

Mr Gantz, a former army chief, has accused Mr Netanyahu of refusing to approve a budget for personal political reasons.

The three-year coalition deal stipulates that Mr Netanyahu serves as prime minister for 18 months, with Mr Gantz, currently the alternate prime minister, taking over in November next year.

Mr Gantz had insisted the coalition pass a budget covering both 2020 and 2021, arguing Israel needs stability after its worst ever political crisis and with its economy devastated by the pandemic. Mr Netanyahu has refused to endorse a 2021 budget. That, say his critics, was a political tactic to keep the coalition unstable and make it easier for him to sink the government before he must hand power to Mr Gantz.

Read the article by Ben Simon in The Australian (AFP).