The Israeli parliament has voted to dissolve, triggering the fifth election in four years

CNN
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The Knesset, the Israeli parliament, voted to dissolve itself, prompting new elections.

On Friday, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid will take over as interim prime minister under the terms of a coalition agreement reached between last year’s outgoing Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Lapid.

Thursday’s 92-0 vote puts an end to Bennett’s term as prime minister – one of the shortest in Israeli history – and paves the way for former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to return to power.

New elections will be held on November 1 – the fifth round of voting for Israelis in four years. A recent poll shows that former Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud party is on track to win more seats, but polls show that his right – wing coalition should have enough seats to win a parliamentary majority and form a ruling government. .

Bennett said he was not going to run in the re-election on Wednesday, saying it was “time to step back a bit” and “look at things from the outside”.

The coalition government had been faltering for weeks. But Bennett and Labyrinth were totally surprised when they announced last week that they wanted to dissolve their own government.

“In the last few weeks, we have done everything we can to save this government. In our view, its continued existence was in the national interest, “Bennett said earlier this month, Standing with Lapid.

“Trust me, we looked under every rock. We did not do this for ourselves, but for our beautiful country, for you, the citizens of Israel,” Bennett added.

The Bennett-Labid government took office in June last year, ending Netanyahu’s 12-year term as prime minister.

With no less than eight political parties, the coalition extends across the political spectrum, including for the first time an Arab party led by Mansour Abbas.

Netanyahu, who began a corruption trial in May 2020, has agreed to set aside his significant differences with a coalition of dissident allies who want to prevent him from staying in power.

Despite its significant domestic and diplomatic achievements, it was domestic politics that eventually toppled the coalition.

The past few weeks have seen many coalition members exit, or threaten to leave.

The political stalemate came to a head earlier this month when the Knesset failed to hold a referendum on the application of Israeli criminal and civil law to Israelis in the occupied West Bank.

Among other things, this regulation, which is renewed every five years, grants Israeli settlers in the Palestinian territories the same rights within Israeli borders, and is a promising article for right-wing members of the coalition. Prime Minister Bennett.

But two members of the coalition refused to support the bill, saying it had not been passed.

Since parliament was dissolved before the law expired on July 1, the regulation will remain in place until a new government is formed, at which point it will go to the polls again.