Coalition Leaders Pressure Netanyahu to Dissolve Knesset This Week

Senior figures in the coalition are pressing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to dissolve the Knesset as early as this week, arguing that continuing the current ultra-Orthodox legislation is badly damaging the government’s standing. Their view is that moving into a caretaker government would halt controversial initiatives and stop the accumulating political damage.

The main concern is the set of bills tied to ultra-Orthodox interests, including the daycare subsidies law, a Basic Law on Torah study, and a bill granting exemption to ultra-Orthodox men classified as draft evaders. According to the coalition insiders, the longer Netanyahu waits, the more these measures will hurt the coalition’s public legitimacy.

The timing matters because, even if the Knesset is dissolved this week, the election date is still expected to remain October 20. In other words, the move would not necessarily bring elections forward, but it would place the government in a transitional status and remove several disputed legislative efforts from the agenda.

Among the items that would be taken off the table are the communications bill, the split of the attorney general’s role, and the override clause. Netanyahu has not yet decided whether to accept the demand, but the coalition insiders are urging him to choose elections over continuing to absorb the political cost of the ultra-Orthodox legislation.