Israel’s Parliament Initiates Dissolution Process As Netanyahu Vows to Push Forward with Coalition Talks

A bill proposed by a member of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud party to dissolve parliament passed the first of three required readings late Monday night, setting in motion the process of initiating fresh elections as coalition talks remain deadlocked. Netanyahu has been negotiating with potential partners for seven weeks but has yet to bridge a major divide between former defense minister Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party and two ultra-Orthodox parties on conscripting religious youth into the army. The prime minister technically has until midnight Wednesday to bridge the gap, and if he can’t, he is expected to press forward with disbanding the legislature and send Israelis to the ballot box for the second time since April 9. Netanyahu met with Liberman earlier Monday in a bid to reach a compromise but they reportedly spent only 20 heated minutes together without making any progress. Thereafter, Netanyahu delivered a primetime address in which he vowed to do everything possible to overcome the impasse before the deadline. “There is no reason to paralyze the country for another year and a half and waste billions [of shekels] when there is a solution [to disagreements over the enlistment bill],” Netanyahu said. “For semantics, you don’t go to elections. It can be solved in two minutes.” For his part, Liberman argues that his position is one of principle and he warned that Netanyahu was not trying to create a right-wing government but, rather, a Jewish theocracy. While the back-and-forth maneuvering might be a high stakes game of political chicken, Netanyahu’s speech was construed as evidence that he wants to avoid going back to the polls. The prime minister is facing potential indictments in three separate cases and is believed to want to form a government as quickly as possible in order to promote legislation that would shelter him from prosecution so long as he continues to lead the country.