The Israeli parliament will approve this Wednesday (22), a process that will end the country’s current government and lead to a fifth call for a new election in less than four years.
The Israeli parliament will approve this Wednesday (22), a process that will end the country’s current government and lead to a fifth call for a new election in less than four years.
Daniela Kresch, RFI correspondent in Tel Aviv
The initiative came from Prime Minister Naftali Bennett himself, who surprised Israelis when he announced on Monday (20) that he had decided to dissolve the governing coalition he had led since June 2021.
The coalition should be formally dissolved next Monday (27), and new elections should be held in early November, although the date has yet to be set.
According to early opinion polls, Benjamin Netanyahu from the right-wing Likud party will get the most seats: about 35 of the 120 seats in parliament are the Knesset. In second place will be Yair Lapid, the current prime minister of the progressive centrist party “Há Futuro”, with about 20 people.
But both will struggle to form a 61-seat coalition. This stalemate lasted three and a half years as pro- and anti-Netanyahu blocs fought each other before they could form stable governments.
The dispute seems to have ended last year when Bennett and Lapid managed to put together the most diverse government in Israeli history with eight separate parties: two on the left, two on the centre, three on the right, and an Arab minority party.
ideological differences
However, despite the harmony of the first few months, ideological differences emerged. The coalition was losing its rebel members and parliamentary majority, and Bennett decided to put a stop to it.
What has just led to this decision is the issue of the West Bank Law, a so-called “temporary” legislation that has been in force for 55 years and is automatically approved by Parliament every 5 years.
The law was due to be reaffirmed later this month to avoid the statute of limitations, but Benjamin Netanyahu, realizing the fragility of the Bennett government, managed to block its passage by promising positions to the government’s rebel MPs.
The law deals with the legal framework in force in Israeli settlements in the West Bank occupied by Israel in 1967. The law establishes that the laws of the State of Israel apply – even if the country has never formally annexed it. West Bank.
Without this law, half a million Israelis living in the West Bank would no longer be subject to Israeli law, causing unprecedented legal chaos.
The only way to avoid this without ratifying the law in Parliament is to hold new elections that automatically freeze all existing laws. In other words: Bennett abdicated to keep in effect the laws that served as the basis for the political base of the far-right “Yemina” (Hebrew Right) party that supported the settlements.
The most ironic thing is that Netanyahu is also from the right-wing Likud party. He took advantage of the government’s fragility to overthrow Bennett and jeopardized the laws he supported.
This move bore fruit: Bennett would resign as prime minister as soon as the elections were held. Until the next coalition takes over, the man who will take over temporarily will be the current foreign minister and alternative prime minister of the centrist “Há Futuro” party, Yair Lapid.
The current coalition has two “fathers”: Bennett and Lapid. The idea was that Bennett would serve as prime minister for the first two years and Lapid for the last two years. Both received the title of “alternate prime minister”, while the other was ahead.
But there is another clause: If the government makes the mistake of the right-wing parliamentarians, Lapid will be the representative of the far left wing, who will take over the transitional government.
Since the last defector was Deputy Nir Orbach from Bennett’s own party, Lapid is likely to take over the government for about six months (four more until the vote and two more to form the next government).
Yair Lapid, 58, is a former actor, presenter and television presenter best known for his small screen appearances and playboy pose a decade ago. But he surprised everyone by quitting his career in 2013 and founding “Há Futuro”, a centrist party with a secular, progressive and liberal bias.
In just nine years, he has become a prominent figure in national politics, serving as Finance Minister, Leader of the Opposition, and currently Chancellor and Alternate Prime Minister.
Lapid has a political background because he is the son of former journalist and former justice minister Yossef “Tommy” Lapid, who died in 2008 and made his mark on national politics by advocating the end of religion’s influence on the state.
But many still see him as unprepared and inexperienced. Perhaps the visit to Israel announced by US President Joe Biden on July 13 will help Lapid consolidate his image of a statesman.
source: Noticias
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