Israel would hold another election, but only for prime minister, according to a bill submitted to Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin by Shas MKs Michael Malkieli and Moshe Arbel on Monday.
The bill has the support of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel elected its prime minister directly in 1996, 1999 and 2001. Netanyahu went against the Likud when he voted for direct elections 25 years ago.
The political bloc that opposes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – the pro-change bloc – has expressed opposition to the idea.
Netanyahu holds a significant advantage over other prime minister candidates in polls. A direct election for the position of prime minister is seen as a desperate attempt by Netanyahu, who is realizing that his chances are low of forming a government in the remaining time of his mandate.
In two weeks’ time, the mandate given to Netanyahu to form a coalition by President Reuven Rivlin will end and possibly be given over to Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid. This has caused Netanyahu’s bloc to consider some creative solutions, including changing the current voting model.
Early on Monday, Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Liberman objected to the idea on social media, noting that “changing Basic Laws on demand is wrong” and promising to oppose the bill if it ends up benefiting Netanyahu.
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כן לשינוי שיטת הממשל, לא לשבירת כללי המשחק.רק לפני שנה נעשו שינוים בחוקי היסוד לטובת קיום ממשלת חילופים בין גנץ לנתניהו, אבל בשניה שזה לא התאים לנתניהו דבר לא הפריע לו כדי לגרור את מדינת ישראל לסבב בחירות רביעי ומיותר.— אביגדור ליברמן (@AvigdorLiberman) April 19, 2021
“Yes for changing the system of government, no for breaking the rules of the game,” he wrote on Twitter, stressing that Netanyahu did the same thing a year ago, when Basic Laws were amended in order to allow for an alternating government between himself and Gantz. “But the second it wasn’t beneficial for Netanyahu, nothing stopped him from dragging the State of Israel to a fourth unnecessary round of elections.”
Yesh Atid MK Meir Cohen stressed during an interview for Army Radio that the Knesset cannot continue to find alternatives for Netanyahu every time he struggles to form a coalition. “We must remain under the clear parliamentarian path,” he said. “We’ll do everything in our power to establish a unity government.”
The right-wing bloc under Netanyahu has so far failed to reach the support it requires in order to form a government, primarily because of the objection of Religious Zionist head Bezalel Smotrich to form any government that relies on the support of Ra’am (United Arab List) and the absolute objection by New Hope head Gideon Sa’ar to sit in a government with Netanyahu.
Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid said on Sunday that he would be very surprised if President Reuven Rivlin does not give him the mandate to form a government after Netanyahu fails to build a coalition by May 4.In the meantime, Netanyahu and ministers from the Likud are expected to convene later on Monday and discuss possible strategies for preventing a scenario in which they lose the mandate to Lapid or Yamina head Naftali Bennett.
Gil Hoffman contributed to this report.
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