As differences escalate among the members of Israel’s coalition government, Israeli Prime Minister and Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu cancelled an emergency party meeting to discuss the possibility of holding early elections, As-Sabeel newspaper reported.
Citing Israeli Army Radio, the newspaper quoted anonymous Likud officials as saying that Netanyahu suddenly cancelled the meeting he had called to discuss the possibility of holding early elections with Interior Minister Gilad Erdan, Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz, Transport Minister Israel Katz and coalition whip MK Zeev Elkin.
Earlier, Knesset Members Yaakov Litzman and Moshe Gafni, who both represent the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism Party, reportedly told Army Radio that in the past two months they had rejected two offers to take part in alternative coalition governments, the first headed by headed by centrist Yesh Atid Party chairman and Finance Minister Yair Lapid, and the second by Labour Party leader Isaac Herzog.
Army Radio indicated that the objective behind the cancelled emergency meeting was only to intimidate Lapid and that Netanyahu did not really want to dismantle the coalition.
Nevertheless, As-Sabeel noted that differences within the coalition led by Netanyahu are indeed escalating. Economy Minister and head of the right-wing Jewish Home Party Naftali Bennett warned that the coalition would collapse if the Ministerial Committee for Legislation did not approve the bill stating that Israel is a Jewish state.
Bennett said that the agreement signed by his party with other parties in the coalition ahead of the government’s formation stated that the “Jewish state bill” would pass into law.
But on Sunday, Justice Minister and head of the Hatnuah Party Tzipi Livni refused to bring the bill to a vote during a meeting of the committee, which she heads.
Netanyahu has vowed to pass the bill.
Meanwhile, Transport Minister Israel Katz suggested that general elections might need to be held within the next few months anyway if the coalition failed to overcome the obstacles hindering the approval of the new budget.
Katz was quoted as saying that early elections could benefit the Likud Party, but warned that they would not be in Israel’s interest.
The last general election in Israel was held in early 2013.