ISRAEL’S KNESSET UNITES FOR NEW ELECTION, DESPITE NETANYAHU’S EFFORTS

Israel’s Knesset voted (on the 20th of May) 110-0 for a preliminary reading of a government-backed bill to dissolve the Knesset. If it becomes law, it triggers a new election, on a date set by the House Committee, sometime within 3 months of its passage. While formally only a first step, politically it may be the eye of a hurricane.

The Times of Israel cited an opposition legislator Merav Ben Ari screaming out the “Shehecheyanu” blessing, recited by Jews on joyous occasions, in the middle of the plenum. The head of the opposition Democrats, Yair Golan, characterized the vote as “the beginning of the end of the worst government in Israel’s history.” He added that the government that has caused “unprecedented damage” is “nearing the end of its path.”

The development is a reflection of Netanyahu’s inability to break Iran, resulting in his inability to hold together his political alliances. One issue that played out recently was the long-delayed disaffection of the ultra-Orthodox. Last week, as recounted by Times of Israel, his “erstwhile allies in the United Torah Judaism party announced that they would push to dissolve the Knesset over the coalition’s failure to pass legislation codifying military conscription exemptions for ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students.”

They had threatened such action before, but Netanyahu had succeeded in stringing them along. Then, in ToI’s words, “in an effort to control both the legislative process and the timing of the elections,” Netanyahu’s MP’s submitted their own legislation for new elections, making as of this morning a total of 13 such bills to dissolve.

Netanyahu’s last-ditch efforts to avoid today’s vote apparently were defeated. Yesterday, Haredi political sources, as ToI put it, “denied claims by officials close to Netanyahu that he had managed to convince a majority of lawmakers to finally pass the controversial exemption bill.”

Then this morning, he put the exemption bill back on the parliamentary agenda, but he was ignored. Rather, the advice to the lawmakers by the ultra-Orthodox spiritual leader, Rabbi Dov Lando, “not to get drawn into political games” but “to support the dissolution of the Knesset” was followed.

Channel 12 news poll, as of May 7, showed that 42% of Israelis who voted for Netanyahu’s Likud party in the previous election now are considering or have already decided to back a different party. The poll had 59 seats going to anti-Netanyahu, pro-Zionist parties (two short of a majority), 51 seats for the factions of Netanyahu’s current coalition, and 10 seats for Arab parties.