Israel's parliament set to dissolve, Netanyahu eyes election

Israel's parliament is expected to dissolve Wednesday, ending Prime Minister Naftali Bennett'sBennett's year-long tenure, and sparking a fifth election in less than four years that could see ex-premier Benjamin Netanyahu regain power.

If an 11th hour shock agreement is reached to save the coalition or form a new government within the current parliament, Bennett's eight-party alliance is due to end by midnight, and will have Foreign Minister Yair Lapid as prime minister.

The former television anchor is expected to lead a caretaker government ahead of polls due in late October or early November.

Bennett's motley alliance formed in 2021 offered a reprieve from an unprecedented era of political gridlock, ending Netanyahu's record 12 consecutive years in power and passing Israel's first state budget since 2018.

Netanyahu a divisive hawk aligned with the far-right nationalists and Israel's ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties - has promised victory in the new elections but may struggle to rally a majority, according to multiple polls.

He is currently on trial for corruption charges, which he denies.

The anti-Netanyahu camp will be led by Lapid, a centrist former TV celebrity. He was dismissed as a lightweight when entering politics a decade ago, but surprised by his political skills.

Lapid tried to cast Netanyahu's potential return to office as a national threat, as he and Bennett announced last week that their coalition was no longer tenable.

Today, we need to go back to the concept of Israeli unity. Lapid said not to let dark forces tear us apart from within.

There are still last minute surprises that are possible given Israel's volatile political climate, and parliament collapse appears to be a near certainty.

Factions across the political spectrum fear that new polls will see them lose seats or end up out of parliament completely because they don't meet the minimum support threshold, which is 3.25 percent of all votes cast.

Israeli reports said that options to avoid another election were getting increasingly remote.

That means Lapid is expected to take office at midnight after Parliament approves a dissolution bill, in accordance with the power-sharing deal he agreed with Bennett last June.

Bennett, a religious nationalist, has led a coalition of right-wingers, centrists, doves and Islamists from the Raam faction, which made history by becoming the first Arab party to support an Israeli government in the Jewish state's 74 year history.

The alliance, united in its desire to oust Netanyahu and break a vicious cycle of inconclusive elections, was imperilled from the outset by its ideological divides.

Bennett said the final straw was a failure to renew a measure that ensures that the roughly 475,000 Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank live under Israeli law.

Some Arab lawmakers in the coalition refused to back a bill that they said was a de facto endorsement of a 55-year occupation that has forced West Bank Palestinians to live under Israeli rule.

Allowing the West Bank law to expire was intolerable for Bennett, a staunch supporter of settlements. Dissolving parliament before its June 30 expiration temporarily renews the measure.

"We fought like lions, down to the very last moment until it became impossible," Bennett told Israel's Channel 12 days after announcing his coalition's demise.

As world powers take steps to revive stalled talks on Tehran's nuclear programme, Bennett is expected to stay as an alternate prime minister and be responsible for Iran policy.

Israel opposes a reversal of the 2015 agreement that gave Iran sanctions in exchange for checks on its nuclear programme.

Lapid will be serving as Israel's 14th premier while retaining his foreign minister title. He will find himself under an early microscope, with US President Joe Biden due to be in Jerusalem in two weeks.