The days of the ruling 61-MK coalition appear to be numbered, a senior government official said Tuesday.
"There's a new drama almost every week, fusses and deals, MKs acting on their own to propose bills. It looks like the beginning of the end. Mostly it looks like [Finance Minister] Moshe Kahlon wants to break up the government, but not be blamed for it. It's not clear how much longer we can go on like this," the official said.
According to the official, the issue of military conscription for the ultra-Orthodox cannot be resolved at this time. On Tuesday, the government asked the High Court of Justice for an extension of four months to arrive at a compromise on the matter.
"We are seeking an extension from the High Court because there's no solution right now. There is simply no political solution, so in the meantime, they're trying to buy some time. Even if the High Court exerts pressure, nothing can really be done. The political situation does not allow for the matter to be resolved," the official said.
The official said the haredi parties remained staunchly opposed to any law to draft yeshiva students and would vote it down, while Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid and Yisrael Beytenu head and former Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman – who originally said they supported the conscription bill – had changed their minds, claiming that deals were being struck behind their backs.
"In short, it's not working," the official said.
After Lieberman resigned earlier this month, Habayit Hayehudi leader Naftali Bennett and fellow party member Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked threatened to leave the coalition if Bennett did not receive the defense portfolio, but eventually decided to stay and give Netanyahu "another chance."
Bennett said Wednesday that he expected a general election would be held in May 2019.
"The coalition is indeed shaky. The moment Lieberman left the government, that was the death sentence. My guess is that we'll have an election in May. I think the government functioned well in a lot of areas," he said.
On Tuesday, Kahlon addressed the current political impasse at a conference of the Israel Adjusters Association in Eilat.
"I don't think the government can hang on. I would prefer to stay in the coalition and agree on a date for an [early] election. I would prefer it to be done by consensus. If it isn't, everything will come to a halt and the economy will suffer," Kahlon said.
Meanwhile, the Likud party on Tuesday continued its efforts to promote a bill that would amend Basic Law: The Government to specify that the term "party leader" refers to the person in the No. 1 slot on the list of a given party elected to the Knesset. If that leader resigned or died, a replacement leader would be chosen by the party within 10 days, according to the procedural rules of the party.
The new version of the bill eliminates a clause in the original version submitted by Coalition Chairman MK David Amsalem, which proposed that the president, who technically has the discretion to make any member of a newly elected Knesset responsible for forming a governing coalition, be compelled to give that responsibility to the Knesset member whom a majority of MKs believe should be given the job. The Kulanu, Habayit Hayehudi, and Shas factions all opposed that clause.
Bennett accused the coalition of holding up passing right-wing bills over Amsalem's proposal.
Amsalem responded to Bennett's remarks in a Twitter message, saying, "You [Bennett] keep undermining the stability of the government. To remind you, the Right does not belong to Habayit Hayehudi. The Likud is the only party that unconditionally supports all nationalist laws, and whose members take into account every consensus demand from coalition members.
"There has never been a situation on my watch in which we've stopped any legislation accepted by coalition members."
In another challenge to the coalition, the opposition planned on Wednesday to propose that the contentious Supermarkets Law, which curtails the operation of businesses on Shabbat, be revoked, hoping that the narrow coalition will allow the cancellation to squeak by.
Lapid, one of the leaders of the gambit against the law, called it "offensive to all citizens of Israel, secular, traditional, or religious alike. This isn't a Shabbat law, it's an anti-Shabbat law. They [the haredi parties] are coming into our homes and telling us what to do. They are coming to neighborhoods, cities, where not a single haredi [person] lives and telling us how to live."
Lapid said he was "calling on all parties to join us in revoking the law."
MK Mossi Raz of the left-wing party Meretz and author of the legislation to revoke the supermarket law, said, "I'm calling on the members of the Kulanu party – help us restore power to the citizens and let them live their lives however they want."
Meretz also planned on Wednesday to present a bill to dissolve the current Knesset and call an early general election.
The move comes after the party, along with three other opposition parties – Zionist Union, Yesh Atid, and Yisrael Beytenu – withdrew various bills to dissolve the Knesset and call an early election after it became clear that they would lose the vote. If any of the bills had been presented and voted down, the parties would be barred by law from presenting similar measures for a period of six months.
However, on Tuesday evening Meretz announced that it would be keeping its promise to present a bill to dissolve the Knesset every Wednesday.
"If there isn't a majority in favor of the bill, we'll pull it at the last minute, like we did last week. But we want MKs from the coalition parties to have the courage [to vote for it]," Meretz said.
