Israel Begins Hearing (Yet More) Talk of Elections

The Israeli unity government established to fight the coronavirus pandemic might be an endangered species, with reports of heated words and even shouting between right-wing Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his centrist coalition partner, Benny Gantz, at a Sunday meeting of the so-called coronavirus cabinet. The immediate excuse for the tension is a budget that, by law, must be passed by August 25; if not, the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, will be forced to dissolve itself, forcing new elections – the fourth in a year and a half. Gantz is demanding a two-year budget, as stipulated in the coalition agreement. Netanyahu, though, has changed his mind and is now insisting on a one-year budget (which will actually be for just three months), citing the urgency and uncertainty of the pandemic. Most of the country’s economists, including the head of the Central Bank, call such a budget a waste of time. Political observers believe the prime minister regrets having agreed to share power with Gantz through a rotating prime ministry and is using the issue to engineer a new coalition that is more amenable to legislating him legal immunity from a possible guilty verdict in his corruption trial.