Netanyahu OKS more budget talks, avoids election
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Sunday that he had 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, Netanyahu said that now was not the time to drag the country into a fourth parliamentary elections in less than two years.
“Now is the time for unity. Not for elections,” he said.
Netanyahu and his rival and coalition partner, Benny Gantz, had faced a Monday deadline to agree on a budget. Otherwise, the government would have collapsed and triggered a new vote.
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.
His announcement came after Israeli lawmakers spent much of the day unsuccessfully trying to agree on a compromise.
The current political crisis pitting the prime minister against rival-turned-partner Gantz is ostensibly over the country’s national budget.
The crisis has deeper roots in the troubled partnership between Netanyahu and Gantz, economic troubles stemming from the country’s coronavirus outbreak and the prime minister’s ongoing corruption trial. Critics accuse Netanyahu of using the budget battle to force a new election in hopes of securing a friendlier parliament that could help solve his legal troubles.
After three deadlocked elections, Netanyahu and Gantz reached a power-sharing agreement in April to form a government to address the virus crisis. As part of their coalition deal, Netanyahu’s Likud party and Gantz’s Blue and White agreed to pass a twoyear budget.