Bibi threatening new election
Benjamin Netanyahu has said that he is considering taking Israel to the polls. Again.
Benjamin Netanyahu has said that he is considering taking Israel to the polls. Again.
Even in a country used to frequent elections the idea is going down like a lead balloon, with even President Reuven Rivlin passing comment and saying that a snap poll would be “completely unnecessary”.
As the current Knesset term had just passed its halfway point on Saturday night, the Prime Minister announced that if he doesn’t win a coalition battle over the future of public broadcasting in Israel, he will call elections.
Many in the Knesset, on the coalition benches as well as the opposition, believe that Netanyahu has strategic reasons for discussing elections which have little to do with public broadcasting. Yair Lapid, the leader of Yesh Atid, has hit out at the bad relations inside the coalition, and said that the situation is reminiscent of a “karaoke evening that got out of hand”.
Netanyahu is demanding that Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon scrap plans to create a new -broadcasting authority. Netanyahu previously supported the new authority, but says that he has changed his mind.
Netanyahu’s reasons for the change of direction are unclear, but his critics are suggesting more cynical motivations.
Former prime minister Ehud Barak said that as well as the broadcasting issue, Netanyahu is reacting to “the investigations and understandings that are going to the opposition with the Trump government”.
Barak was referring to the ongoing police investigations into possible misconduct by Netanyahu, and a growing sense in Jerusalem that US President Donald Trump is less tolerant of settlements and accepting of stagnation in peace talks with the Palestinians than was expected.
Netanyahu has been managing the domestic political drama from China, where he has been holding meetings and attending events, on the 25th anniversary of the establishment of Jerusalem-Beijing relations.
The major focus of the visit was Israel-China partnership on technology, and China used the visit to announce its relationship with Israel to be a “comprehensive innovation partnership”.
Netanyahu told Chinese President Xi Jinping: “We have signed many agreements, but I think that your decision to announce a comprehensive innovation partnership between China and Israel is a tremendously important decision, certainly for us in Israel, and I believe through our cooperation, for China as well.”
On Monday, he told the Third Meeting of the China-Israel Joint Committee on Innovation Cooperation: “We want to marry our technology with China’s capacities.”
NATHAN JEFFAY
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