JERUSALEM – Israel's precarious coalition government took a first step towards collapse, as lawmakers gave a preliminary approval to a bill dissolving Parliament, raising prospects of a fourth election in less than two years.
The measure passed with support from the Blue and White party led by Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz, the key partner in the coalition headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The opposition-sponsored bill earned 61 votes on Wednesday, with 54 voting against.
But the parliamentary vote on an opposition proposal marks only a first step.
A bill to dissolve the Knesset will require three additional successful readings before new elections must be called.
But Gantz's decision to side with the opposition, at least for now, highlights the widening cracks in Israel's centre-right coalition, imperilled from the start by mistrust, infighting and public recriminations.
The Netanyahu-Gantz coalition, agreed in April, included strict power-sharing arrangements.
Netanyahu, who heads the right-wing Likud party, was to serve as prime minister for the first half of the three-year arrangement.
Gantz had been due to take over as premier in November 2021 but Netanyahu's critics have always insisted he would find a way to sink the coalition before vacating the prime minister's office for Gantz.
The unity deal included multiple triggers that would automatically force new elections, including a failure to pass a budget, saying that new budget could avoid elections.
Netanyahu released a video shortly before Gantz spoke on Tuesday, urging him to keep the coalition together.
Gantz’s former ally turned critic, Yair Lapid of the Yesh Atid party, is now the Knesset opposition leader and would be seen by many voters as a more effective anti-Netanyahu force than Gantz in a new election. – AFP, December 3, 2020
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