Netanyahu dislikes rotation deal, but also fears elections
By Dec. 23, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must decide what scares him more: elections with Gideon Saar as contender or rotation with Defense Minister Benny Gantz.
Israel’s latest political crisis will be decided, one way or another, at midnight on Dec. 23. There is no other time, no other way. The law stipulates that unless the Knesset approves the state’s 2020 budget by that deadline, the Knesset is automatically disbanded and elections for a new legislature are held three months hence, meaning March 23, 2021, for the fourth time in less than two years.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces one of the toughest decisions of his life this coming weekend. All his options are bad, with some being downright risky. If he opts for elections, he will be doing so without having first nailed down the support of his future coalition government partners. For the first time since he took office in 2009, the source of the imminent existential threat hovering over him lies to his political right, with not one but three challengers, all former close associates with the most lethal being former Likud stalwart Gideon Saar.
