4th Election in 2 Years Looming but Israel’s Political Landscape Markedly Changed Uri Cohen 12/20/2020
The shifting sands of Israel’s parliament mean the coming election cycle may offer a different result
Less than 72 hours before the Knesset, or parliament, is automatically dissolved, Israel’s political scene on Sunday was all aflutter, with last-ditch negotiations and desperate proposals lobbed by both parties heading the fractured government, leading some lawmakers to predict elections might be avoided after all.
Yet odds remain high that Israeli citizens will head to the polls in three months, for the fourth time in two years. In all likelihood, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz, though both facing an uphill battle at the polls, will not reach a last-minute understanding and will fail to sign an agreement extending the current parliament’s life span.
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Dec. 19, 2020
Protesters against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are demonstrating in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and at traffic junctions, bridges and intersections nationwide for the 25th week in a row on Saturday, marking six months since the protest movement began.
In Jerusalem, thousands of demonstrators are protesting in Paris Square, the central site of the demonstrations in the capital, adjacent to the prime minister s official residence on Balfour Street, having marched there from the Chords Bridge.
Protesters are demanding Netanyahu resign amid his criminal trial in three corruption cases and mismanagement of the COVID-19 crisis.
The model submarines that have been visible at the weekly protests for months are also at the protest in Jerusalem, under the banner of the Investigation Now protest group, which continues to demand that Israel s law enforcement agencies probe the so-called submarine affair and establish a state commission of inquiry.
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Dec. 18, 2020
Supposedly the ceremony is over. All the paths have been blocked. On Tuesday at midnight the Knesset will dissolve itself automatically and Israel will tumble into a fourth election over the course of less than two years. The noose Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, an indicted man fleeing trial, is winding around the country’s neck will grow ever tighter. Another five months, at least, without a national budget, without oxygen for a gasping economy.
Additional billions of shekels will be poured into the bottomless pit of campaigns and Election Day and the day off from work, along with coronavirus logistics that will inflate the bill. More huge salaries will be paid to advisers who will flood us with venomous, mendacious, filthy propaganda.
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz attends a cabinet meeting of the new government, at the Chagall Hall in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, May 24, 2020. Photo: Abir Sultan / Pool via Reuters / File.
i24 News – Jerusalem is a “spacious city that is full of sites which are sacred for all” and as such, could have enough room for a Palestinian capital, Israel’s Defense Minister and Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz hinted.
In an interview published Thursday, Gantz told the Saudi newspaper
Asharq al-Awsat that Palestinians do have a right to independence and their own capital.
Nevertheless, the defense minister also stressed that the city must remain undivided.
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