ISRAEL HEADS TO THIRD ELECTION AFTER NETANYAHU INDICTMENT
JERUSALEM—ISRAEL headed on Wednesday toward a third national election in less than a year with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu facing the fight of his life for political survival after a criminal indictment.
A midnight deadline, the last of a series of set to allow for the formation of a new government after a September election, passed unmet. That triggered another election within three months. Under an earlier agreement between the two main parties, March 2 was the date to be set for the new election.
What had once seemed nearly impossible to many Israelis—a third visit to polling stations after the inconclusive ballots of April and September
—carries a heavy economic price: It will be well into 2020 before a new budget is passed, which will mean months of cutbacks that will weigh on growth.
Neither Netanyahu’s rightwing Likud party nor the centrist Blue and White party led by his main rival, former military chief Benny Gantz, won enough seats in the Knesset for a governing majority in the previous two contests.
Both men were delegated the task of forming a coalition, but failed. Each has blamed the other for the impasse, in which neither could agree on the terms for a “rotating” premiership.
Wednesday’s deadline marked the end of a final threeweek period in which Israel’s president gave Knesset lawmakers an opportunity to find a new candidate from within their ranks.
In the two previous national elections, Netanyahu’s opponents focused on the three corruption investigations against him that included allegations he dispensed favors to media barons in a push for more favorable media coverage.