New election after leader fails to form government
JERUSALEM — Seven weeks after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared “a night of tremendous victory” in Israel’s election, his failure to form a government by midnight Wednesday has turned into a stunning debacle for him and thrust Israel into a new election.
Israelis will return to the ballot box in about three months, the first time in the country’s history that it has been forced to hold a new national election because of a failure to form a government after the previous one.
The Israeli parliament voted to disperse itself early Thursday, only a month after being sworn in, with a majority of 74 in favor and 45 against in the 120-seat body. One member was absent.
The vote sets in motion a new election and casts a cloud over the future of Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister for the past decade.
After the April 9 election, Netanyahu was confident that his conservative Likud party would easily form a coalition with its past right-wing and religious allies. But his plans were stymied by a power struggle between secular ultra-nationalist and ultra-Orthodox factions, who refused to compromise on proposed legislation on military service.
Facing possible corruption charges, Netanyahu had less political wiggle room to turn to more liberal parties and failed to assemble the 61-seat majority required to form a government.
President Reuven Rivlin said he could offer another member of parliament the chance to form a government, or he could tell the speaker of parliament that efforts to form a coalition had failed and that there would be no alternative to calling new elections.
But Netanyahu preempted Rivlin from choosing someone else to lead a new government by having his Likud party advance its own bill to disperse the parliament before the president could act.