Israel’s Government Narrowly Passes 1st State Budget in 3.5 Years, Avoiding Early Elections

Israelis woke up on Thursday morning to the country’s first state budget in 3.5 years. The Israeli government narrowly passed by a vote of 61-59 the state budget for 2021 at 5 a.m. after an all-night session during which dozens of votes were taken on aspects of the $194 billion budget bill. It’s passage prevents the automatic dissolution of the government and early elections. The vote was along coalition lines, though former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, the opposition leader,  accidentally voted with the coalition on a budget clause early in the morning. Lawmakers are scheduled to reconvene at the Knesset later on Thursday to vote on the Economic Arrangements Law, the supplementary legislation to the State Budget needed to put it into effect, and then on the $183 billion 2022 state budget. “A holiday for the State of Israel,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett tweeted at 5:52 a.m. on Thursday. “After years of chaos — we have formed a government, overcame the Delta variant and now, thank God, we passed a budget for Israel! Continuing forward at full strength.”