Israel avoids fresh election with budget deal

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that he has accepted a proposal to extend budget negotiations, preventing the government from collapsing and plunging the country into a new election.

In a nationally televised address Mr Netanyahu said now was not the time to drag the country into an unwanted election. “Now is the time for unity. Not for elections,” he said.

Mr Netanyahu and his rival and coalition partner Benny Gantz had faced a Monday night deadline to agree on a budget. Otherwise the government would have collapsed and automatically triggered a new vote, the fourth parliamentary elections in less than two years.

Mr Netanyahu said that following a historic agreement to establish official relations with the United Arab Emirates, and with the country struggling with a coronavirus outbreak, he felt it was wrong to go to elections.

Biden finally got Obama to hand over the electoral Excalibur

---

Tensions high in Belarus as troops gather at protester meeting site

---

Trump considers bypassing US regulatory rules to fast-track vaccine

---

European governments on high alert as coronavirus infections rise

---

He said he accepted a compromise that would give the sides an additional 100 days to reach a budget deal, and in the meantime direct spending to struggling areas of the economy and society.

Mr Netanyahu secured his political survival earlier this year by clinching a coalition deal with Mr Gantz. However, the alliance faced collapse if the budget deal was not reached.

With no compromise having being reached by Sunday morning, the government’s weekly cabinet meeting was scrapped reportedly over the disagree

“We’re ready for solutions …There’s no reason to take us to elections,” Mr Gantz had said on Saturday.

After days of his Likud party trading barbs with Mr Gantz’s Blue and White party, the prime minister on Thursday stressed it was “important that we do everything to prevent another election” and pass the budget.

Stalemate

The political stalemate following three inconclusive elections has long delayed Israel’s budget, with the government using last year’s plan throughout 2020. With the coronavirus pandemic sparking an economic crisis, the government has announced additional financial measures such as cash handouts to Israelis.

Unemployment reached a peak of 27 per cent in April, and with the country going through a second wave of infections, officials are mulling a second shutdown in the coming weeks which would be a further blow to business.

Israel’s president Reuven Rivlin held talks with party leaders on Thursday and told them Israelis “feel cheated and suspicious” after three elections in less than a year.

“The president stressed that it is inconceivable that the question of approving the budget will lead to a fourth round of elections,” Rivlin’s office said.

A poll published earlier this week showed Likud picking up 29 seats in a fresh election, down from the 36 the party won in March. Blue and White would pick up just nine seats according to the Ma’ariv newspaper poll, down from 33, after lawmakers abandoned the party en masse once Mr Gantz joined the coalition.

Thousands of Israelis protested outside the prime minister’s Jerusalem residence on Saturday evening, the latest in weeks of demonstrations. Israelis are also rallying against political corruption as Mr Netanyahu in May became the first sitting prime minister to go on trial for graft.

However, despite calls for the prime minister to step down, few Israelis were enthusiastic about the prospect of heading back to the polling station.