Today, Wednesday, Israel is heading towards holding its fifth elections in less than 4 years;
It is expected that the parliament (the Knesset) will be dissolved, thus ending the year-long term of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, and new elections will be organized during which former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will seek to return to power.
These developments come to increase the state of political uncertainty, as they coincide with a rise in the cost of living and renewed international efforts to revive the nuclear agreement with Iran.
Yesterday, Tuesday, Israeli lawmakers approved, in the first reading, a bill providing for the dissolution of the Knesset itself.
The law was passed by a majority of 53 members after hours of deliberations, without any opposition or abstention from any of the members.
The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation said that it was decided to complete the voting on the bill until midnight on Wednesday, before the emergency regulations in the West Bank expire.
Bennett moved last week to dissolve parliament after an internal conflict left his ruling coalition unable to govern.
The Knesset set midnight on Wednesday as the deadline for the final vote on its dissolution.
Once the Knesset agrees to call early elections, center-left Foreign Minister Yair Lapid will take over, succeeding Bennett, as the prime minister of a caretaker government with limited powers.
Bennett's coalition, which formed in June 2021, ended a long period of political stalemate in Israel and the era of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who held the position for 12 consecutive years.
The coalition succeeded in approving the state budget, the first since 2018.
Yair Lapid (right) will take over from Bennett (Reuters)
Surveys and accusations
The results of several opinion polls indicate the possibility of Netanyahu winning the upcoming elections, but he may face difficulty in gathering the parliamentary majority needed to form a government.
But the former prime minister also faces corruption charges, charges he has long denied as a conspiracy by his political opponents.
Netanyahu will face an opposing camp led by former TV host and centrist leader Yair Lapid, who has surprised many with his political skills.
Netanyahu, currently the leader of the opposition, expressed his happiness at the end of what he described as the worst government in Israel's history.
He hopes to win a sixth term.
And last week, with Lapid and Bennett declaring their alliance unable to survive, the foreign minister said Netanyahu's possible return to power represented a "national threat."
"What we must do today is to return to the concept of Israeli unity, and not let dark forces tear us apart from within," he added.
The Knesset will decide this evening the decision to dissolve it (Reuters)
Surprises and predictions
In light of the volatile political atmosphere in Israel, last-minute surprises are still possible and capable of changing expectations.
Israeli political parties fear that they will lose their seats or end up outside the parliament for not obtaining the 3.25% of the votes that would qualify them to enter the Knesset.
But the most likely scenario, according to the available data, is heading towards new elections and installing Lapid - at midnight today, Wednesday - as prime minister under the power-sharing agreement concluded with Bennett last year when the government was formed.
With the dissolution of Parliament and the inauguration of Lapid, Bennett remains the alternate prime minister and will be responsible for the Iranian file, while Israel is working to not revive a nuclear agreement concluded between Tehran and the major powers.
In addition to the position of prime minister, Lapid will retain the foreign affairs portfolio and begin the transitional period with an upcoming visit by US President Joe Biden to Jerusalem in about two weeks.