Israel heads towards new elections due to lack of agreement between Netanyahu and Gantz

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a parliamentary session on December 1 ABIR SULTAN

Israel has stepped onto the stage of a fourth elections in less than two years on Tuesday.

The tension between the prime minister, the right-wing Benjamin Netanyahu, and his partner in the government, the centrist Benny Gantz, over the approval of the budget this year and next has pushed the coalition into the abyss.

The Parliament (Knesset) had until midnight to approve the accounts before dissolving for the call of new elections in March 2021. The Government extended the financial safety net in the absence of a pact.

Representatives of the head of the Government assured that they tried to avoid the call for elections until the last minute.

The spokesman for the Likud caucus, Miki Zohar, said they had done "everything" to prevent the failure of the coalition in the midst of a pandemic with soaring infections and a serious economic crisis.

However, Netanyahu was reluctant to pass the budget law, while warning against a new election call in the name of "national unity."

The prime minister refuses to approve the 2020 and 2021 budgets, when Gantz must assume the leadership of the Executive, as agreed by the two parties when forming the coalition last April.

The Israeli prime minister, pending trial for three crimes of corruption, whose hearing is due to begin next February, has reserved the silver bullet of the approval of the state accounts to control the electoral process based on his interests.

Gantz, for his part, exploded against the prime minister at the beginning of the month and said: "everything that is happening is because Netanyahu lies to the public and only thinks about saving himself from his court cases."

Citizen groups have been demonstrating for months in front of Netanyahu's residence in Jerusalem to demand his resignation due to the corruption cases he faces.

After three legislative elections that did not achieve a clear winner between Netanyahu and Gantz, the two candidates decided to form a Government of "unity and urgency" to face the covid-19 pandemic.

The agreement included a rotation of the prime minister's post and stipulated that the government would approve a single budget for two years (2020 and 2021), but the Likud, Netanyahu's party, proposed to vote on two different budgets, which the centrist formation Blue and Gantz White refused.

According to analysts, this budget crisis has been Netanyahu's way of provoking new elections and thus avoiding handing over power to his partner in November 2021. The prospect of new elections looms in the middle of the health crisis, and just as Israel ends to start its vaccination campaign against covid-19, which has left 380,000 cases in the country and 3,100 deaths.

In addition to the court battle he faces, Netanyahu is in the crosshairs of his own party.

His former Minister of Education and the Interior Gideon Saar announced in December the creation of his own formation, Tikvá Hadashá (New Hope), openly listed to the right and to which the polls give the second position in voting intention.

Although the Likud leads the polls, the emergence of this new party and the rise of the radical right-wing Yamina formation of another former minister, Naftali Bennett, would detract votes from Netanyahu and could complicate the post-election alliance game.

Meanwhile, Benny Gantz has seen his support diluted and his formation disintegrate.

Local observers believe that Saar could form a government without the orthodox religious parties, traditional allies of Netanyahu, and the bloc of the minority of Arab citizens of Israel.