Tel Aviv - With only hours to go until the final deadline to
form a government in Israel runs out, chances of a third election
within a year looked all but unavoidable on Wednesday as lawmakers
continue to deadlock.
The two largest parties in Israel's 120-seat parliament - caretaker
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud and Benny
Gantz's centrist Blue and White - have agreed on March 2 as the date
for the third election if no last-minute agreement on a governing
coalition is reached before the deadline at midnight (2200 GMT).
The parliament will pass legislation on the election date on
Wednesday, Speaker of the Knesset Yuli Edelstein has said.
A third election within under a year is unprecedented in Israel and
attests to the intensity of the political stalemate in the country.
While Netanyahu has failed twice to form a majority coalition in the
wake of April 9 and September 17 elections, Gantz has failed once.
Netanyahu has insisted on staying in office for at least another six
months, while Gantz has declined to sit with the Likud so long as
Netanyahu, who stands accused of corruption, remains prime minister.
Netanyahu, Gantz and kingmaker Avigdor Liberman, of the far-right,
secular Yisrael Beiteinu party, have pointed their fingers at each
other for the failure.
Almost three years after the corruption allegations surfaced,
Israel's attorney general announced last month that Netanyahu would
be the country's first sitting prime minister to be indicted.
The 70-year-old faces charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust
for allegedly offering political favours in return for more positive
press coverage and helping out wealthy business contacts in return
for expensive gifts.
He has until January 1 to ask lawmakers to vote for granting him
immunity, as a Knesset member, against criminal charges.
Although Netanyahu is undeniably under pressure, there has been no
open revolt against him in the Likud or the public. Only one leading
Likud member, former education minister Gideon Saar, has announced
that he will challenge the prime minister for the party leadership.
Judging by opinion polls, the indictment announcement has not
decimated support for "Bibi" among Likud members or voters, nor is
there an immediate end in sight to the paralysing tie between the
right-wing religious and centre-left blocs in the Knesset.