Israeli Elections
If a coalition deal is not inked by midnight, then Israel will head to new elections on March 2, 2020.
Knesset member Gideon Sa’ar dismissed notions that he would abandon Likud should he lose his bid for the party leadership, saying “the Likud is my home. I am competing within the Likud.”
The proposed date has been agreed on by both Likud and Blue and White, but must still pass three Knesset readings.
Israeli prime minister: “I’m in favor of the people deciding and no one else” • Proposal “has no chance of passing in the few days left to this Knesset,” says Sa’ar • Bennett: “We must do everything possible to avoid new elections.”
Though the addition of his eight mandates to the right-wing or a left-wing bloc would avoid elections, Yisrael Beiteinu Party leader Avigdor Lieberman said Likud, and Blue and White have made this impossible.
The Likud Party has had just four chairmen since its founding, all of whom served as premier.
“I will be able to form a government and unite the country,” says Likud MK Gideon Sa’ar following attorney general’s decision to indict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Talks between the two countries are in “pause mode” due to Israel’s political gridlock, Jordanian monarch says during New York conference.
“Israel Hayom” survey predicts Likud would win 33 mandates in the new elections compared to Blue and White’s 34, while Yisrael Beiteinu is expected to fall from its current nine Knesset seats to seven.
With the right rallying behind the Israeli prime minister and the left-wing opposition calling for his resignation, the political stalemate inflicting the Jewish state has no end in sight.
Lawmakers now have 21 days in which any of the 61 Knesset members can back any member of the Knesset as prime minister.
“Some principles and values can’t be given up,” even if it means going back to elections, says Blue and White leader Benny Gantz.
