(Bloomberg) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he has accepted a proposed compromise that could end a coalition crisis that has threatened to bring down the government.
It’s not clear, though, whether the government is on safe ground. It can still fall if Netanyahu’s Likud and the Blue and White party led by Defense Minister Benny Gantz don’t both vote to extend the midnight Aug. 24 deadline for passing a national budget, a key component of the proposed compromise.
Under Israeli law, parliament is automatically dissolved if the spending plan isn’t approved by the deadline. But the cutoff date can be extended by amending the law.
If parliament is disbanded, Israel will face its fourth election in less than two years.
The coalition crisis arose after Netanyahu’s Likud party sought to renege on a coalition agreement to pass a two-year budget for 2020-2021.
Netanyahu said he was acting “out of responsibility to the nation.” Blue and White called on him “to honor his promise to avert elections and abide by the agreement.”
Beyond any economic considerations, a two-year budget would deny Netanyahu the chance to bring down the government over next year’s spending plan and block Gantz from taking over as premier in November 2021 under their rotation deal.
Likud argued that a more complicated, two-year spending proposal would prevent officials from moving urgently to remedy the virus-battered economy.
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