Israel faced the prospect of political chaos once again Wednesday when lawmakers approved a preliminary measure to dissolve the turbulent coalition government, putting the country on a path to its fourth election in two years.
The vote of 61 to 54 to advance the proposal marked another escalation of a political crisis that has left the country with only a caretaker government for more than a year and a largely dysfunctional unity coalition during the mounting coronavirus pandemic and accompanying economic collapse.
Wednesday's bill does not take immediate effect. Negotiations among the feuding factions could still head off final action on the proposal as it moves to a parliamentary committee before coming back for three more votes by the full Knesset, Israel's parliament. Among the issues to be negotiated will be the timing of elections.
But the push to topple the coalition got a major boost when Benny Gantz, leader of the Blue and White party that shares power with Prime Minister's Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, announced he would support ending the government.
Gantz, who battled Netanyahu to inconclusive results over three previous elections, agreed to join his rival in a coalition government in April as coronavirus cases were beginning to spiral. He became both the defense minister and an 'alternate' prime minister scheduled to rotate into the top job in autumn 2021.
But after seven tumultuous months, he effectively declared the power-sharing effort sharing a failure, accusing Netanyahu of bad-faith political maneuvers meant to prolong his grip on power.
'I had no illusions about Netanyahu,' Gantz said in announcing his party's support for the no-confidence bill.
'I was well aware of his track record as a serial promise-breaker, but I thought that the people of Israel are more important than one leader, and that Netanyahu would rise to the occasion. Much to my dismay, that didn't happen.'
How is the government elected?
Based on a system of proportional representation, where voters select a party instead of a specific individual, Israeli elections have always resulted in coalition governments.
To win an outright majority, a party would need to win more than 60 seats in the 120-member Knesset.
The minimum required for a party to win a Knesset seat is two percent of the total votes cast.
The prime minister is normally â€" but not always â€" the leader of the party that wins the most seats. He or she then negotiates with other parties to form a governing coalition.
In the 2009 election, although the incumbent prime minister's party, Kadima, won the most seats in the parliament, the Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu was able to form a majority coalition government and become the new prime minister.
Bill to disband Knesset passes in plenum
The short term of the 23rd Knesset came one key step closer to completion on Wednesday, when MKs from the opposition and Blue and White passed Knesset dispersal bills.
Bills sponsored by Meretz and Yesh Atid-Telem passed by a vote of 61 to 54. Bills sponsored by Yamina and the Joint List did not pass.
While the voting took place, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz sat next to each other and made a point of looking in different directions. Earlier, Likud minister David Amsalem, who is close to Netanyahu, called Gantz 'spineless.'
The bills were only passed in their preliminary readings, so they must pass three more times in the plenum and three times in the Knesset House Committee to become law and enable the parliament to be dispersed.
The Joint List's four-member Ra'am (United Arab List) party, led by MK Mansour Abbas, decided to not attend the vote, despite pressure from their Joint List colleagues to support the bill.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will respond to the Knesset's dispersal bills at 8pm on Wednesday evening during the highly rated nightly newscasts, his Likud Party announced.
'I call upon the Knesset to vote in favor of this bill, to disperse and let the people of Israel choose a government that genuinely cares about them,' said opposition leader Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid-Telem), who initiated the process of dispersing the Knesset.
Lapid said his bill was not intended to be 'just another round of 'anyone but Bibi,'' aimed at defeating Netanyahu.
He said the bill was being presented, 'because it's time to end that focus and 'the anger and the hatred and the terrible mismanagement and the politics that are destroying our country won't end as long as he's there.'
Meretz leader Nitzan Horowitz told the Knesset plenum that Netanyahu needed to leave office due to his criminal cases, and he would have already left had Blue and White listened to his office and not joined the government.
He said he hoped the voters of the Center-Left camp had learned the lesson to not support 'Trojan horses who spit in their faces,' referring to Blue and White, Labor and Gesher.
Alternate Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Benny Gantz seen during a visit on the Israel-Lebanon border, Northern Israel, on November 17, 2020.
Joint List head Ayman Odeh said his voters would ensure that Netanyahu would leave office and end up in jail.
Yamina faction head Ayelet Shaked said she hoped the Knesset is dispersed and replaced with a better government as soon as possible.
Immediately after the bills are advanced, negotiations are expected between Blue and White and Likud on passing the 2020 and 2021 state budgets and avoiding early elections.
Coalition Chairman Miki Zohar said he would ask Netanyahu to negotiate with Gantz and keep the government together, because it is not right to go to elections until after the coronavirus crisis ends.
In a gesture to the Likud, Blue and White postponed by a week a vote on its controversial Equality Bill.
The bill was strongly opposed by Likud and its coalition partners in Shas and United Torah Judaism, as well as the right-wing Derech Eretz party that is part of the Blue and White faction.
The Knesset is the unicameral national legislature of Israel. As the legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister, approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government. In addition, the Knesset elects the State Comptroller. The last election was held in March 2020.
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