Israel faces repeat 2019 election after parliament dissolves
Israel embarked Thursday on an unprecedented snap election
campaign — the second this year — after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
failed to form a governing coalition and instead dissolved parliament.
In what seemed an improbable scenario just days ago,
Israel’s newly elected Knesset dissolved itself in an early morning 74-45 vote
and set a new election date for Sept. 17.
The parliament’s disbanding comes just a month after it was
sworn in and sets the stage for a second election in the same year — a first in
Israeli history.
The developments were a shocking setback for Netanyahu, who
had appeared to secure a comfortable win in last month’s election. But he was
unable to build a parliamentary majority because his traditional ally, Avigdor
Lieberman, refused to bring his Yisrael Beiteinu faction into the coalition.
Netanyahu’s Likud party excoriated Lieberman, accusing him
of betraying voters, abandoning his right-wing ideology and selfishly carrying
out a personal vendetta against his former patron Netanyahu.
Lieberman, a former top aide to Netanyahu who for two
decades has alternated between a close alliance and bitter rivalry with his
former boss, delivered his own rebuke Thursday. A former defense minister and
foreign minister under Netanyahu, he appeared to break with him for good by
alleging that Likud Party members were blind Netanyahu followers who needed
professional help.
“This has nothing to do with ‘the right’,” Lieberman, a West
Bank settler, said at a press conference. “This is about a cult of personality
and not any political ideology.”
Netanyahu, who has led Israel for the past decade, now faces
another challenge to his lengthy rule. It comes as he prepares for a
pre-indictment hearing before criminal charges are expected to be filed against
him in a series of corruption cases.
Assuming they would sweep into power again, Netanyahu’s
allies in the ruling Likud had already begun drafting a contentious bill aimed
at granting him immunity from the various corruption charges awaiting him. He
was also looking to push legislation limiting the power of Israel’s Supreme
Court and paving his path to several more years in office.
But it was a separate issue that sparked the extraordinary
crisis, and for the first time ever thrust Israel into a repeat election before
a new government was even formed.
Lieberman — a veteran nationalist and a secular politician —
demanded that current legislation mandating that young ultra-Orthodox men be
drafted into the military run its course.
Years of exemptions for ultra-Orthodox men have generated
widespread resentment among the rest of Jewish Israelis who serve. The
ultra-Orthodox, backed by Netanyahu, refused to bend and the showdown quickly
devolved into a full-blown crisis that imploded the perspective government.
“The public chose me, and Lieberman, unfortunately, deceived
his voters. From the beginning he had no intention to do what he said,”
Netanyahu said after the vote, accusing Lieberman of aligning with “the left.”
“He made one demand after another and every time his demand
was met, he raised another one,” Netanyahu also said, adding that Lieberman
“clearly wanted to topple the government for his own personal reasons.”
Lieberman called the accusations ridiculous and retorted
that the new election was indeed unfortunate but a result of Netanyahu caving
in to the ultra-Orthodox.
“This is a complete surrender of Likud to the
ultra-Orthodox,” he said.
Though a staunch hard-liner who has drawn accusations of
racism, Lieberman also champions a secular agenda aimed toward his core political
base of immigrants from the former Soviet Union. He has pledged to confront
efforts of ultra-Orthodox parties to impose their lifestyle on the country’s
secular majority, earning him some centrist support as well.
In contrast to Netanyahu’s deal-making pragmatism, Lieberman
has earned a reputation as a maverick willing to break from his traditional
ideological bloc. This time, both dug in and refused to budge.
“Israel has known many political crises in its 71 years. It
has also known some dirty and even dirtier political tricks, corrupt and even
more corrupt political bribery offers,” wrote Nahum Barnea, a columnist with
Yediot Ahronot. “What we saw last night in the Knesset was a new page in the
process of the decline of Israeli democracy.”
The new election gives the anti-Netanyahu forces in Israel,
led by Blue and White leader Benny Gantz, another shot at toppling the longtime
leader. It also complicates Netanyahu’s efforts to pass the proposed bills to
protect himself from prosecution.
Even if Netanyahu wins the election, it is unlikely he will
be able to form a government and lock down the required political support for
an immunity deal before an expected indictment. That would force him to stand
trial, and in turn put heavy pressure on him to step aside. No one in Likud has
yet challenged him publicly.
The political uncertainty could also spell trouble for the
White House’s Mideast peace efforts. The US has scheduled a conference next
month in Bahrain to unveil what it says is the first phase of its peace plan,
an initiative aimed at drawing investment into the Palestinian territories.
The Trump administration had vowed to unveil its plan after
the Israeli election and it’s unclear how the current political shakeup will
affect that rollout.