One Month After Vote, Netanyahu Weighs Holding New Elections

(Bloomberg) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party is preparing for the possibility of repeat elections while he scrambles to form a government by Wednesday’s deadline.

Six weeks after Netanyahu won re-election in a tight vote April 9, two parties he needs for a government remain at odds over the drafting of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men into the army. If former Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman insists that coalition partners commit to a military draft law, then new elections are a possibility and the Likud will meet Tuesday to begin getting ready, a party spokesman said by text message.

If Netanyahu can’t form a coalition by Wednesday with at least 61 seats in the 120-member Knesset, President Reuven Rivlin could give another party the chance. Past negotiations have often taken the full six weeks, with brinkmanship rising as the deadline approaches.

The Likud’s proposal of another election round “is part of the brinkmanship,” said Shmuel Sandler, political scientist emeritus at Bar Ilan University. “One of the rules is you pass the ball to the other side,” so Liberman now will have to decide how important the draft law is to him.

Corruption Probes

Sunday afternoon, Netanyahu said he was inviting heads of all potential coalition partners to a meeting to discuss a compromise proposal. The effort, he said, was the last chance “to form a right-wing government and avoid unnecessary elections.”

Netanyahu’s efforts are complicated by a looming indictment on corruption charges. The attorney general last week postponed until October a hearing where Netanyahu can plead his case to avert criminal charges. Public debate during the coalition talks has focused on possible maneuvers to shield Netanyahu from prosecution, forcing the Orthodox draft issue to the sidelines.

Military service is obligatory for Jewish men in Israel, but tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox men receive exemptions by claiming to be full-time Torah scholars. On his Facebook page, Liberman said he backs Netanyahu for prime minister but insists on drafting ultra-Orthodox men into the army.

‘On Hold’

Ya’akov Litzman, leader of the United Torah Party, won’t hesitate to go to new elections to preserve the Orthodox exemption from the army, Israel National News reported.

Ynet reported that Likud had authorized legislator Miki Zohar to submit a draft law later Sunday to dissolve parliament. It would be the first time a party leader tapped to form a coalition had failed to do so, the Israel Democracy Institute said in a report.

Fresh elections would be expensive and would extend the “hold” Israel has been in since the Knesset was dissolved last December, the IDI said. However, it wouldn’t be the “end of the world,” the institute said, noting that other democracies including the U.K. and Greece have held back-to-back elections in the past.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gwen Ackerman in Jerusalem at gackerman@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Riad Hamade at rhamade@bloomberg.net, Michael S. Arnold, Stephen Treloar

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