Israel faces new elections after parliament dissolves

JERUSALEM - Israeli lawmakers voted to dissolve parliament on Thursday, paving the way for a new election after veteran Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to form a coalition government before a midnight deadline.

Netanyahu preferred new elections, set for Sept 17, to the alternative: Under Israeli laws, President Reuven Rivlin could have asked another politician to try to form a ruling coalition.

The election, Israel's second this year after an April 9 poll in which Netanyahu claimed victory, means unprecedented upheaval even for a country used to political infighting.

"We will win," Netanyahu, head of the right-wing Likud party, vowed after the parliament, known as the Knesset, voted for a fresh election when the deadline expired for the premier to assemble his fifth government.

But the need for a rematch was a blow to a combative leader, who has ruled for the past decade but faces looming indictments in three corruption cases.

The turmoil arose - officially, at least - from a feud over military conscription between Netanyahu's presumed allies: ex-defense minister Avigdor Lieberman, a far-right secularist, and ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties.

Those parties want young religious scholars exempted from mandatory national service. But Lieberman and many other Israelis say they should share the burden.

Faced with the prospect of having to step aside at the end of a 42-day period allowed to form a coalition government, Netanyahu instead drummed up votes to dissolve the Knesset, accusing Lieberman of aiming to topple him. Lieberman denied the allegation.

The new election, with coalition-building process that could stretch into November, could further delay US efforts to press ahead with US President Donald Trump's forthcoming plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Even before it has been announced, Palestinians have spurned the plan, described by Trump as "the deal of the century", as a blow to their statehood hopes.

"Now it is the deal of the next century," Palestinian Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat told Israel Radio after the new Israeli election date was set.

The White House team behind the peace proposal, including Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, is in the Middle East to drum up support for what he styles as an economic workshop in Bahrain next month to encourage investment in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

The group planned to meet Netanyahu later on Thursday.

Veteran premier

First elected in the late 1990s, Netanyahu will in July overtake Israel's founding father, David Ben-Gurion, as Israel's longest-serving premier.

But the failed coalition building by the 69-year-old leader, who just weeks ago was hailed by supporters as a political magician, may open rifts and stir up challenges within the Likud party.

The April election, in which Netanyahu showcased his warm relations with Trump and frequent contacts with Russian President Vladimir Putin, ended with him neck-and-neck in votes with Benny Gantz, a politically untested ex-armed forces chief and head of the centrist Blue and White party.

But Netanyahu was given the nod to form a government after ultranationalist, right-wing and religious party leaders voiced their support. No one in Likud has yet challenged him publicly.

Dubbed "crime minister" by his opponents, Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing in the graft investigations he faces. In February, Israel's attorney general said he intended to charge Netanyahu with bribery and fraud. Netanyahu, who denies wrongdoing, faces a pretrial hearing in October.

Reuters - AP - Xinhua

(China Daily 05/31/2019 page11)