Israel is heading for early national elections, after the Jewish Home party told press today that they will be leaving Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition, bringing down the government.
The Jewish Home party’s decision came after Prime Minister Netanyahu today rejected Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett’s demand to be made Defence Minister, in a meeting today between the two.
According to a statement by the Likud party, Netanyahu has said that he will fight to preserve the coalition. However, without Jewish Home, the coalition would go down from 61 seats to just 53. The government must have the backing of at least half of the 120 seat Knesset to survive no-confidence motions.
The Israeli cabinet is reportedly set to be meeting on Sunday, and it is now expected elections will be held between March and May. The next election in Israel had originally been scheduled for November of 2019.
Following Wednesday’s departure of Avigdor Lieberman from the post of Defence Minister and his party’s withdrawal from the government, Netanyahu’s coalition had just a one seat majority. On the same day, Naftali Bennett delivered Netanyahu an “ultimatum” for the Jewish Home to stay in government – to either appoint him as Defence Minister or his party would leave the coalition.
On Thursday, leader of Kulanu and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon reportedly objected to the idea of Bennett becoming Defence Minister and instead called for early elections. Leader of Shas and Interior Minister Arye Deri added his voice to the calls for an election citing Lieberman’s resignation as his justification.
