Netanyahu warns early Israel elections will be ‘disaster’

Nov. 18 (UPI) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday early elections in Israel will be a disaster for his nation if right-wing elements take over.

Key coalition allies are threatening to call for snap elections before the scheduled November 2019. In Israel’s system of proportional representation, no single party can govern alone.

“In a sensitive period for our security, we don’t need [early elections] and we know what happens when elements in a right-wing government led to the government being toppled, like in 1992 and in 1999, which brought us the disaster of Oslo and the disaster of the [Second] Intifada,” Netanyahu said during the opening of the cabinti meeting in Jerusalem.

In an 1992 election, Yitzhak Rabin replaced Yitzhak Shamir. And in 1999, Netanyhau was voted out in place of Ehud Barak.

“I recent days I have spoken with all of the coalition heads,” Netanyahu posted on Twitter. “This evening I will meet with Finance Minister Kahlon in an attempt to prevent the government from being toppled. At this sensitive time vis-à-vis security, it would be both unnecessary and incorrect to go to elections.

Kahlon was the first to call for an early election after Avigdor Liberman resigned from the Defense Ministry on Wednesday and pulled his Yisrael Beytenu party from the coalition.

In an interview to the Israel Television News Company on Saturday, Lahlon said that unless Netanyahu “pulls a rabbit from a hat” he will vote to dissolve the parliament Wednesday. Also, Education Minister Naftali Bennett supports an early election.

“Ministers Kahlon and Bennett can prevent the dissolution of the government,” Netanyahu’s spokesman Jonatan Urich posted on Twitter. “We can most certainly prevent unnecessary elections at this time and allow the government to continue for many more months.”

Urich said Sunday is the last chance to prevent the government’s dissolution.

Since March 205, the current government led by the Lakud party has been in power. The coalition includes nationalist and religious parties.

Netanyahy, who has won four elections, is favored by residenta as prime minister but his Likud party might not be able to stay in power if other parties can form a coalition without it.

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said in a report by the Jerusalem Post “it is clear that what we need to do will not get done under this government.”

Shaked wants to dismantle Khan al-Ahmar, an illegal Beduin outpost in the West Bank and to allow the Knesset to circumvent High Court decisions.

She favors Bennett, the Bayit Yehudi party leader, becoming defense minister if the goverment continues to function until November 2019. It is an Orthodox Jewish, religious Zionist political party.

“Bennett will revolutionize our security and bring Israel’s deterrence back, which was lost under Liberman in the past two years, and will help save us from a deep crisis of faith in our security,” Shaked said. “Without that, this government is called right-wing, but in practicality is fulfilling left-wing policies. The public is sick of voting for the right and getting left.”

Coalition chairman David Amsalem of the Likud party blamed Bennett for the deterioration in the coalition.

“We have a [right-wing] government that could continue for another year,” Amsalem said. “The prime minister will meet with the finance minister to day, but personally, I think these talks have no chance.”

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