Parliament Passes Poll Proposal in Preliminarily Procedure, Prime Minister Pans Political Posturing

The Israeli parliament pushed the self-destruct button Wednesday, voting in a preliminary reading to dissolve itself and kicking off a process that may well end in the nation’s fourth general election in less than two years. The bill was passed due to the support of the Blue and White party, a major member of the coalition whose leader, Alternate Prime Minister and Defense Minister Benny Gantz, had had enough with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s empty promises to pass a budget. Gantz believes Netanyahu is planning to delay the budget indefinitely in order to enable him to call elections at his convenience sometime next year, after coronavirus vaccinations arrive and his poll numbers recover. Passing a budget for 2021 will box Netanyahu in and force him to follow the agreement signed with Gantz, namely stepping down in November 2021 and handing the reins over to Gantz. After the disbanding bill was preliminarily passed, Netanyahu called on Blue and White to stop “playing politics” and insisted that what “Israel needed was unity, not elections.”