Following weeks of empty threats against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister and Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz said he would dissolve the government if the state budget for 2021 doesn't pass by the end of October.
"If there is no budget, we'll go to elections," Gantz warned.
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"I'm not willing to be held hostage to anyone's political situation. I will not accept a government that does not collaborate, does not function. My priorities lie with the State of Israel, not with myself," the former IDF chief asserted during a Blue and White faction meeting.
Israel has not had a national budget for almost an entire year, a situation Gantz's party wishes to end promptly. "If we don't see this happening... we will examine another path to tread on."
Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi, also from Blue and White, however, took a more moderate tone on Tuesday, writing on Twitter: "Netanyahu still has time to change and work with us as partners. If Netanyahu doesn't come around – enough is enough, it's over. There's no point."
Finance Minister Israel Katz (Likud) slammed Blue and White over "attempts at blackmail."
"All blackmail attempts by Blue and White and the attempts to link budgets to politics are unacceptable to me. I am personally in favor of stability and the existence of the government, but not in this way," Katz railed.
"I reject their ultimatum outright and I say, do you work for the country or for your political considerations? Do you want elections? Then I will make sure there are elections. We are not afraid… we will beat them again," he threatened. "But it is not in the interest of the state to hold elections. They should straighten up and act for the sake of the citizens of the State of Israel."
Meanwhile, a new Channel 13 poll on Tuesday showed Netanyahu's Likud party losing ground to former defense minister Naftali Bennett's Yamina Party.
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"I'm not worried about the polls," Netanyahu said on Monday following the Yamina's successful showing. "I never do well in the polls, only on election day," Netanyahu told Israel Hayom.
Swiping at the former defense minister, Netanyahu added: "I noticed that Bennett sided with [Yesh Atid Chairman Yair] Lapid in the no-confidence vote against the prime minister. He should decide if he's right or not right. I think that astonished a lot of people; it astonished me as well. I can understand a vote to disperse the Knesset, but to vote for Yair Lapid as prime minister? A brotherhood alliance.
"I said the moment we impose a lockdown, we will have preceded Europe and it would follow in our footsteps. That's what happened. You won't hear that on the news, not a chance. They'd rather run stories on Antarctica, about finding three penguins there," he said.
The Channel 13 poll showed Yamina with 24 mandates and the Netanyahu-led Likud with 27. The poll also showed Yesh Atid-Telem headed by Lapid with 21 mandates. The Blue and White and Yisrael Beytenu parties stood at eight mandates apiece.
United Torah Judaism received seven mandates, Shas received eight and Meretz six. According to the poll, the right-wing-Haredi bloc has 66 mandates, compared to 54 seats for the center-left bloc together with Yisrael Beytenu. The polls also showed four parties failing to pass the electoral threshold: Labor, Derech Eretz, Habayit Hayehudi and Gesher.
