Early elections are highly likely to be held in January or February 2019, several of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's close advisers predicted Thursday.
The next general elections are scheduled for Nov. 5, 2019, but there is a growing sense among the political echelon that mounting coalition crises will spell the end of the current term earlier than planned.
Earlier this month, coalition officials said the growing public protests over recent controversial legislation such as the nation-state law and the amendment to the surrogacy law, coupled with a dispute surrounding the conscription law – a political hot potato in and of itself – are undermining the coalition's stability.
Kulanu leader Moshe Kahlon also said recently that he believes early elections are highly likely.
He said he believes the quarrel between Yisrael Beytenu leader and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman and the ultra-Orthodox parties over the new amendment to the conscription law cannot be resolved.
The ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party also opposes any further amendment to the surrogacy law, which in its current form denies single men the option of using a surrogate to become parents.
Sources familiar with the coalition clashes over the surrogacy legislation told Israel Hayom that United Torah Judaism Chairman Yakov Litzman has warned Netanyahu that if he ever speaks of the issue in public again, Litzman would resign from the government, essentially toppling the coalition and forcing early elections.
Overall, Netanyahu's advisers were unfazed by the prospect of early elections, citing the Likud party's strong performance in the polls.
The latest poll, from July, projects that Likud would win 30 Knesset seats, giving it a substantial lead over any other party and enabling its continued leadership of the coalition.
The poll found that Yesh Atid would win 19 seats, making it the second-largest party in the Knesset. Zionist Union would win 15 seats, followed by Joint Arab List (12), Habayit Hayehudi and United Torah Judaism, with 8 seats each, Yisrael Beytenu and Kulanu (7 each), and Meretz and Shas (5 each).
MK Orly Levy-Abekasis' new party, which has yet to be named, was projected to win 5 Knesset seats.
