Third elections in Israel .. Has the end of Netanyahu begun?

Mohamed Mohsen Wedd - occupied Jerusalem

While the Israeli Knesset approved, with the first reading out of three, to dissolve itself and go for a third parliamentary election in less than a year, Avigdor Lieberman, the leader of the "Our House Our Home" party, announced that he would only join an inclusive national unity government, accusing the Likud party and a blue and white alliance of dragging Israel into elections A third with general approval.

The official deadline for forming a government in Israel expired without any party succeeding in forming the government.

In the next few hours, the Knesset will continue discussing a bill to dissolve itself, to become effective after voting on it in the second and third readings.

This comes after the endeavors to form a government in Israel reached a dead end, as party leaders clashed with accusations of each party’s responsibility for the outcome of the government’s crisis in Israel.

In an attempt to keep himself prime minister without going for a third election, Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the possibility of waiving immunity in the event that a comprehensive national unity government is formed, provided that he rotate first as President Reuven Rivlin suggested.

The newspaper "Haaretz" considered that this is a trick by Netanyahu to pressure the Blue and White alliance to accept his conditions, and to evade the responsibility of dragging Israel to a third election and accusing Lieberman and the blue leader White Benny Gantz of that.

Netanyahu is fighting a leadership for the Likud party, as elections will be held on December 26, after former Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced the competition for the party leadership.

Sa'ar called on Netanyahu to stand down and quit political life and confront corruption in the corridors of the courts, a call that was met with incitement by Likud members against Sa'ar.

It is estimated that Netanyahu may be able to resolve the internal battle and remain in the Likud leadership, but the belief is strengthened, according to analysts and politicians, that it is impossible to succeed in forming the government even after the third Knesset elections were decided, due to the recommendations of the Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit to submit indictments against Netanyahu on corruption charges Bribery and dishonesty.

Netanyahu faces challenges over his political future, ranging from corruption files and indictments to be filed against him to the Jerusalem District Court, and the right-wing party leaders branded the dismantling of the right's bloc, while strengthening the position and strength of a blue-white coalition led by Gantz, according to political analyst for the Israeli Channel 13, Raviv Drucker.

Rotation and alliance
Drucker asserts that Yesh Atid chief Yair Lapid's abdication of the rotation agreement to head the government with Gantz, comes to consolidate a blue and white alliance and enable him to settle the third elections and enhance the opportunities for forming the next government to bring together the secular and religious, by including the government coalition, and even the Haredi parties that It formed the cornerstone of the bloc supporting Netanyahu despite the corruption files against him.

The political analyst explained that Netanyahu managed - despite his recommendation to stand trial - to maintain himself in the Israeli political scene by establishing the 55-member right-wing bloc, which granted him immunity and maneuverability, but without success and for the second time in forming the right-wing government.

Election and trial
According to party and parliamentary affairs analyst Yossi Verter, Netanyahu seeks to map out the political map and the alliance between the right-wing and Zionist religious parties to ensure their representation in the Knesset, thus forming a narrow and extremist government.

Verter said that given the balance of power between the right and center and Lieberman's position calling for a comprehensive national unity government, it will be difficult to overthrow Netanyahu via the ballot box, and the judicial path will remain the most effective way to block Netanyahu from the political scene in Israel.

Struggle and overthrow
Amid internal struggles to prevent the Likud from cracking, Netanyahu's failure to form a government, and preparing to present an indictment against him next January, another struggle by Netanyahu, dubbed "King of Israel", is his declining popularity, which has previously enjoyed 65% of Israeli society.

A poll of the official Israeli radio, "Kan", yesterday, Wednesday, showed that 52% of voters do not find Netanyahu the right person for the position of prime minister.

Political analyst Akiva Al-Dar believes that a third election with Netanyahu being put on trial is a real test of Israeli democracy, pointing out that the voter was unable to overthrow Netanyahu through the ballot box, and the judicial process is very slow compared to previous files of heads of government, ministers, Knesset members and rabbis in Israel.

And the house indicated that Netanyahu needs to bolster the right’s bloc with six seats not only to form a government, but also to legislate a law to fortify it and cancel the indictments against him, stressing that it is on this basis that the Prime Minister pushed Israel to a third election that may be the beginning of the end of the Netanyahu era and heading to the dock.