It’s no secret that the current Israeli coalition government is not functioning well. The 2 individuals who were supposed to share leadership (i.e. the office of Prime Minister) cannot get along. The cabinet has too many ministers to even approach being an efficient body, let alone make any real decisions. So it isn’t surprising that following another rift between the two leaders of the 2 sides of the coalition the parliament (Knesset) voted to disband. The action will take place in a week unless the warring individuals manage to reach yet another compromise. What that really means is that Benyamin Netanyahu will somehow manage to hang on for a little while longer and his alternate, Benny Gantz, will cave in again. Neither of them should be happy with the idea of another election. Gantz split his own party when he opted to join Netanyahu in a agreement that kept Netanyahu on as Prime Minister while he was supposed to become PM later, Many observers were sure Netanyahu would find a way to avoid carrying out his side of the agreement. It appears they were right. But meanwhile, the country suffered.Recent polls show that neither Gantz nor Netanyahu can gain a majority, or even hold on to the number of seats in parliament that they currently hold. If there is a new election, the results will be only slightly different from what happened last time. But that slight difference is , at present, enough to prevent Netanyahu from forming a new coalition, and Gantz won’t be able to do so, either. There are three other potential candidates for the top job that have, at least theoretically, a chance at trying to build a ne coalition without Netanyahu; Yair Lapid, Naftali Bennet, and Gideon Sa’ar. The question remains open as to which of them will be able to succeed in forging an alliance that can replace the Netanyahu led government. The new election, if it happens, might take place before the verdict is delivered in Netanyahu’s multiple count corruption trial. I don’t believe it will be influenced by the Abraham Accords peace agreements between Israel and other countries.The arrival of Corona vaccines will be also too late to erase the memory of the inability of the Netanyahu led government to make coherent decisions about the pandemic. I wonder, how many of the over 3000 Israelis who died from the virus were Netanyahu supporters?
Wetherhorn 