Tel Aviv: Israel will hold a snap election in March after the parliament meet on Tuesday failed the deadline to pass a budget, triggering fourth general election in past two years presenting new challenges for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Campaigning in Israel’s fourth parliamentary election in two years is on fire now as PM Netanyahu is facing public anger over dealing with the coronavirus epidemic and for the first time against an Israeli prime minister when he is engaged in a corruption trial.
Israel’s longest-serving leader will also face a new rival from the right, Gideon Saar, a defender of Netanyahu’s Likud party. Sawyer was also featured alongside the Prime Minister in a public opinion poll on Israel’s Cannes Public TV on Tuesday.
Netanyahu, who has denied any criminal wrongdoing, and current defence minister, centrist politician Benny Gantz, established a unity government in May after three inconclusive elections since April 2019.
But he is locked in a dispute over passing a national budget, the key to implementing a deal in which Gantz was taken from Netanyahu in November 2021. A new election means there will never be “rotation”.
Some political analysts said Netanyahu expected the budget dispute to be used for the election, which would force him out of the power-sharing agreement with Gantz. But he said he preferred a ballot in May or June, which could bring him more voters when the vaccination campaign is now underway.
In a televised speech on Tuesday, Netanyahu blamed Gantz, saying, “If we win the election, we promise you we will win.”
“Netanyahu is taking us to an election for the sole purpose of not going to jail,” Gantz wrote on Twitter, alleging that Netanyahu asked a new government to promote legislation that would lead to legal proceedings against him Expected.
Netanyahu will remain prime minister until the new government is formed after the March election. Now 71, he served in this post for the first time from 1996 to 1999 and has been in the post since 2009.
In his TV address, and effectively kicking off his campaign, Netanyahu stated that he had arranged for millions of coronavirus vaccines to be delivered to Israel. He also welcomed US-brokered diplomatic deals with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco.
Netanyahu enjoyed a close relationship with President Donald Trump, who made several pro-Israel moves during the last elections. With US President-elect Joe Biden taking office in January, Netanyahu would have lost a major campaign asset, said political scientist Raven Hazan of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.