The Knesset is set to pass the second and third readings of a bill tomorrow to dissolve itself and hold elections on March 17, 2015. This vote comes amid feverish talk of an anti-Netanyahu Left-center bloc being formed by Labor Party leader Isaac Herzog, Hatnua party leader Tzipi Livni and possibly Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid.
Livni confirmed yesterday that her party was on the verge of sealing a deal to merge with Herzog’s Labor Party ahead of the March 2015 elections, asserting that such an alliance would offer Israeli voters a viable alternative to Netanyahu’s Likud.
Last week Netanyahu sacked Livni and Lapid from the government in a move that effectively spelled the end for the coalition government elected in January 2013. The date of the new election, March 17, was set shortly after the firings.
On Friday, Herzog declared that he would become Israel’s next prime minister by leading a centrist bloc to defeat Netanyahu. A day earlier, Yesh Atid accused Netanyahu of attempting to poach MKs and split apart the centrist party in a last-ditch attempt to salvage his ruling coalition and avoid elections. The allegations were swiftly denied by the prime minister.
Former Likud minister Moshe Kahlon will also run in the elections at the head of a new party. Haaretz speculates that Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman and Moshe Kahlon could also join forces with Lapid to counter Netanyahu.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu was reported last night to be seeking to move up the Likud primaries, set for January 6, to late December, in part to make it logistically harder for former interior minister Gideon Sa’ar to return to the party and challenge him for the leadership.
Netanyahu and Habayit Hayehudi (Jeiwsh Home) chairman Naftali Bennett have reportedly reached an excess votes agreement which is to be signed in the coming days. Under Israel’s proportional representation system, seats are assigned by percentage of the national vote. The agreement would make it possible for the party gaining the highest amount of excess votes above the percentage needed for to use the votes of the other party to gain an additional Knesset seat, a source told i24news.
Ynet today reported that Netanyahu was in talks with Liberman to join a coalition including the ultra-Orthodox parties forestalling the election, though both sides denied the report.
Meanwhile, the leaders of Knesset’s three Arab parties are talking about merging and launching a get-out-the-vote campaign at what is looking like a make-or-break moment. The election threshold to gain entry to the Knesset was recently raised to 3.5% of the vote, the equivalent of four seats; each of the Arab parties currently hold three or four seats. A united party combined with a large turnout could gain the Arabs extra representation and legislative clout in the Knesset.
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin has reached out to this population as well. “A big (Arab) turnout could change the game,” the AP wrote.
[Photo: Number 10 / Flickr]