Could Bibi engineer coalition crisis?

AS THE Knesset returns to its summer session next week, senior sources in the coalition expect another attempt by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to engineer early elections.

The ostensible cause for a coalition crisis which could precipitate the Knesset’s dissolution is the proposal to pass legislation limiting the powers of the High Court to cancel laws passed by the Knesset.

A High Court-bypass law has long been on the agenda of the right-wing and religious parties in Parliament, who have been infuriated by the justices’ “activism” in ruling that laws — such as the exemption of yeshiva students from military service — are unconstitu- tional. Further impetus to pass legislation was provided in recent weeks as the court blocked the government’s plan to deport Sudanese and Eritrean refugees to Uganda.

However the government lacks the necessary majority to pass such a law.

Kulanu, the centrist-right party led by Moshe Kahlon, the finance minister, opposes limiting the court’s powers, and without its Knesset members voting in favour, no such legislation will pass.

Mr Netanyahu has tried to build support for the law, meeting former Supreme Court president Aron Barak earlier this week. He is scheduled to hold talks with its current president, Esther Hayut, next week.

But there is unlikely to be any movement on that front and while the other leaders of the coalition partners have agreed to start the legislation process as early as next Sunday, Mr Kahlon is so far resolute.

Likud insiders believe Mr Netanyahu, fully aware of the slim chances of passing the court-limiting law through this Knesset, is hoping to provoke a coalition crisis, which will enable him to gain a majority to call early elections in September.

This, he hopes, will pre-empt any decision by the attorney-general to indict him on corruption charges.

Likud is currently rising in the polls and he believes that if elections are called early, he is on track for a renewed mandate and a fifth election victory, equaling David Ben Gurion’s record.