Israeli coalition to submit bill to dissolve parliament

If the bill is approved, Yair Lapid will become prime minsiter of a caretaker gov’t, coalition leaders say.

The leaders of Israel’s governing coalition have said they will submit a bill to dissolve parliament.

“After exhausting all efforts to stabilise the coalition, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and … (Foreign Minister) Yair Lapid have decided to submit a bill” dissolving parliament “next week”, the two leading coalition partners said in a statement on Monday.

They also said that if the bill is approved, Lapid will take over as prime ministser of a caretaker government.

The election, expected in the fall, would be Israel’s fifth in three years.

Lapid and Bennett in June 2021 had formed an unlikely coalition after two years of political stalemate, ending the record reign of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The government of right-wing, liberal and Arab parties was fragile from the start.

With a razor-thin parliamentary majority and divided on major policy issues such as Palestinian statehood, Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, and state and religion issues, the eight-faction alliance began to fracture when a handful of members abandoned the coalition. The government’s parliamentary majority was soon lost.

The new vote could set the stage for a return to power by Netanyahu, who is now the opposition leader.

Opinion polls have forecast that Netanyahu’s hardline Likud will once again emerge as the largest single party. But it remains unclear whether he would be able to muster the required support of a majority of lawmakers to form a new government.

This is a developing story. More to follow…