Raam Party Rejoins Israeli Government, Likud Withdraws Knesset Dissolution Bill

The Likud on Wednesday withdrew a bill to dissolve Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, after the United Arab List-Ra’am agreed to return to full participation in the ruling government coalition. Raam had frozen cooperation with the coalition over clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinian worshippers on the Temple Mount/Al-Aqsa compound, and had stayed out of the plenum during a no-confidence vote on Monday, which still failed to pass. The party led by former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu withdrew the bill after it became clear that it did not have the votes to pass. If the bill had been voted on and failed, the opposition would have been required to wait six months to propose a new one. Raam head Mansour Abbas said that the party would remain in the coalition in order to achieve legislation to improve the lives of Israeli Arabs. He said that the party was not in favor of the country going to another election, and the possibility that Netanyahu would return to power. The party also clearly was concerned over polling this week that showed if new elections were held Raam would not clear the electoral threshold needed to enter the Knesset.