The Likud has announced that the party will support a bill from MKs Yoaz Hendel and Tzvika Hauser to postpone a vote on the state budget, which at first appeared to be the start of a compromise that would end the latest coalition crisis and prevent another election, but it still seems as if we are a long way away from peace and quiet.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set on having another opportunity to dissolve the government, whereas Blue and White leader Benny Gantz is equally set on preventing that. They are separated by people in the middle who have already been the deciding vote in other political battles and might be this time, too.
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The bill in question, which would postpone the deadline for submitting the state budget, was presented by a two-MK faction. After the Likud and the Haredi parties announced that they would support it, and after Blue and White also embraced the idea, Hauser and Hendel once again found themselves the pivotal point for the entire political system.
The last time this happened was when they refused to join a minority government comprising the left-wing parties and Yisrael Beytenu, which would have depended on support from the Joint Arab List. The current government is mostly the result of their determination, which forced Gantz to admit that he had no other alternative.
There are others who could have leapt on the opportunity to decide the matter. The Labor party, for example, which currently has only two or three MKs, depending on how you count them. By taking advantage of the situation, the party could have positioned itself as a kingmaker, like it used to be in the distant past.
If an early election is indeed called, Yamina leader Naftali Bennett could be the deciding factor. He is on the Right, but no longer in Netanyahu's pocket. If the prime minister finds himself lacking recommendations to the president that he be the one to form the next government, Bennett could decide whether or not he is tapped for the job.
Netanyahu told Channel 20 on Monday that Gantz could become prime minister in a rotation if he began behaving like a partner, rather than placing obstacles in the way of cabinet decisions that were supposed to have been made in partnership. It's possible that Netanyahu didn't mean a word he said, and in his heart thinks that an election is around the corner.
In effect, if Gantz had played the game as a real partner for a year and a half, the prime minister would have found it very difficult to avoid the rotation agreement and would have been forced to hand over the wheel on the appointed date. Gantz thinks that by behaving differently, he will build himself up, but he will pay the price for it by being allowed to see the inside of the Prime Minister's Office as a guest only.
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