Knesset passes initial vote to disperse, setting Israel on path to elections - The Times of Israel

The coalition led by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett cleared the first major hurdle on its path to ending the current government on Wednesday, passing the first of the four votes necessary to disperse the Knesset and force snap elections.

Unable to agree even on dissolution, the opposition and coalition submitted several separate versions of the legislation — nine opposition bills and two coalition versions.

The coalition’s primary version passed with 106 votes in favor and one against, while the opposition bills all passed with over 89 votes.

The dissolution process requires four separate votes and two committee reviews, and is not expected to be completed on Wednesday.

After months of political instability kicked off by losing its one-seat majority in early April and exacerbated by security tensions, Bennett and Lapid said they arrived at their decision after attempts to restore order in the coalition were “exhausted.”.

The opposition did not let go of its strategy of painting the government as illegitimate… In the face of this incitement, three MKs on the right who could not stand their power, folded.

The Joint List party had previously been allied with Ra’am, which broke with the traditional Arab political line to sit with the coalition.

Although both the government and opposition agree that the current coalition’s tenure is over, a contest has quickly emerged over how the government will fall and under what terms.

The opposition is making last-ditch attempts to outflank the government and end the coalition not through dissolution, but rather by swapping out the current government with one of its own.

The Likud-led opposition and its leader Netanyahu have an option to shortcut elections and immediately take over the reins of power: If the right-wing religious 55-seat bloc can attract at least six more coalition MKs, it can immediately form a new government within the current Knesset.

The opposition has pursued this strategy since April, when the coalition’s former whip and lawmaker from Bennett’s own Yamina party, Idit Silman, resigned from the coalition and forced it into a 60-60 seat parity with the opposition.

The opposition leaders allied with Netanyahu have publicly expressed confidence that their parties will win a majority in elections, but behind closed doors, have been more fearful of a vote, Channel 12 reported on Tuesday.

In fact, its two defectors are currently advocating for an alternative government headed by Likud, and Bennett’s longtime Yamina partner — Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked — is said to be actively feeling out an option to ally with the right’s largest party.

Abbas, who flipped the narrative of Arab politics on its head by joining a coalition, may need to attach his party to the next coalition in order to give his political revolution another chance to show results to his base.

Netanyahu, for his part, has railed against the coalition for leaning on Abbas and the opposition’s majority Arab Joint List party, and said on Monday that he would not sit with Abbas.