Israel’s Experiment With Most Diverse Coalition Government Comes To An End, Sets 5th Polls In Less Than Four Years

Expansion

Israel’s experiment with the most diverse political coalitions, from left, center and right, to even an Islamic Arab party, finally came to an end on Thursday. The Knesset cleared the way for new elections with a massive 92–0 vote. This will be the fifth election in less than four years. The Anti-Netanyahu Coalition (resolved to keep former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu out of power) which ran a government for more than a year with sharp ideological differences, finally came to an end after its inconsistency.

Coalition government in constant trouble

Rough members kept the government in trouble throughout his term and eventually made it unstable, while Netanyahu’s party remained loyal to him. It became difficult for the government to even work on issues that were aligned with its ideology. The decision to dissolve the 120-member Knesset (parliament) had to be taken as Israel stood on the threshold of entering an unprecedented and chaotic legal situation on the West Bank.

Israel created legal status for settlers in the West Bank, while separate laws for Palestinians residing in the same location. Through emergency regulations that came into force in 1967 and have to be renewed every five years. The existing rules were due to expire at midnight on Thursday and the coalition government was unable to garner support to pass the renewal. Israel’s Knesset voted to dissolve parliament on Thursday morning, as the country headed for its fifth election since 2019. The last general election was held in March 2021. Parliament voted 92–0 to hold new elections.

Former PM Naftali Bennett was running a coalition government with eight parties. During this, many members left him. Because of this, his government was reduced to a minority in Parliament during the last two months. Jair Lapid is the caretaker prime minister after the dissolution of parliament. Naftali Bennett is the head of Israel’s right-wing Yamina party. It was formed in 2019. At the same time, Yair Lapid is the leader of the Liberal Party named Yash Atid. Lapid formed the party in 2012.