Israel’s politics is collapsing

Here we go again. On Monday, Naftali Bennett, Israel’s Prime Minister, announced that he would bring a bill to dissolve the Knesset and trigger yet another election.

After a seemingly endless procession of elections, Bennett’s rainbow coalition was a brief respite from constant campaigning that exhausted the populace and bankrupted the political parties. Comprising factions of the right, left and centre, and even including the Islamist Ra’am party, the diverse government agreed to park controversial issues like the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Instead, it’s been focused on policies that its members could agree on, like pandemic management, Iran and economic reforms.

From the very beginning, things were shaky. With just 61 members in Israel’s 120-seat Knesset, the government had next to no room to manoeuvre. Managing these tensions was the job of coalition chairperson Idit Silman from Bennett’s Yemina party. So it was ironic when Silman herself defected in April, causing a 60-60 stalemate in the Knesset with no majority to pass bills but not enough votes to dissolve itself and call a new election.

Since then, the government has been living on borrowed time.