Israel set for fifth election in less than four years

Israel is heading for new elections in the autumn – its fifth in less than four years – after prime minister Naftali Bennett announced that the coalition, which lost its parliamentary majority in April, could no longer function.

The Knesset parliament will dissolve next week and, under the terms of the coalition agreement, Yair Lapid, head of the centrist Yesh Atid, will serve as caretaker prime minister until a new government is sworn in.

Elections are expected at the end of October but a final date has still to be set.

Announcing the decision in an emotional prime-time televised address, Mr Bennett said that it was not an easy moment, but the right decision for Israel.

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“A year ago, we formed a government that had seemed impossible, that stopped the severe leadership paralysis,” he said. “We formed a good government, and together we got Israel out of the slump. Israel went back to being governed.”

Opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu, head of the right-wing Likud, said the “worst government in Israel’s history dependent on supporters of terrorism” had come to an end. He promised the next government headed by him “will restore national pride to the citizens of Israel so that you can walk in the street with heads held high”.

There is still an outside chance that Mr Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, will succeed in forming an alternate government within the current Knesset. However, this would require members of right-wing parties in the coalition – New Hope and Mr Bennett’s own Yamina – to switch sides and join Mr Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc.

The coalition led by Mr Bennett was the most bizarre in Israel’s history. It consisted of eight disparate parties from across the political spectrum (including, for the first time, an Arab party) with little in common except for a burning desire to prevent Mr Netanyahu forming another government. The Bennett government lasted one year and one week.

When Idit Silman, from Mr Bennett’s Yamina, quit the coalition in April the government lost its wafer-thin majority of one. Since then, other coalition parliamentarians have rebelled repeatedly on key votes, including extending Israeli civil law to West Bank settlers for another five years, threatening legal chaos if the Bill is not passed by the end of June deadline.

Mr Netanyahu was unable to cobble together a parliamentary majority after the last four elections, creating a period of unprecedented political instability when Israelis went to the polls four times in 2½ years.

He is currently in the midst of a corruption trial, facing serious charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, which he denies. Despite this, the latest polls show a surge for Likud and the right-wing, religious Netanyahu bloc on course to win a slim majority in the 120-member Knesset.

US officials say president Joe Biden’s planned visit to Israel next month will still go ahead. He will be welcomed by caretaker prime minister Mr Lapid.