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JERUSALEM – Israel's defense minister officially resigned on Thursday, leaving the government with the narrowest parliamentary majorities and paving the way for early elections.
Avigdor Lieberman sent a letter of one sentence to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, informing him of his decision to withdraw. The move, which takes effect within 48 hours, leaves Netanyahu with the support of only 61 of the 120 legislators.
With the other coalition partners also showing great flexibility and opposition parties demanding early elections, the days of Netanyahu's current government seem to be running out.
Lieberman's abrupt resignation came as a sign of protest against the cease-fire with the Gaza militants, which ended two days of intense fighting. The hard-line had demanded a much harder response from Israel to the largest wave of rocket attacks launched against Gaza since a 50-day war in 2014, but had been canceled by Netanyahu.
In his televised announcement on Wednesday, Lieberman criticized the government's weakness and described the ceasefire as "capitulation to terrorism".
This decision immediately triggered furious political turmoil. Insiders have predicted that this would mark the beginning of a new political campaign.
Parliamentary elections are expected in a year, but Israeli governments rarely fulfill their mandate. The last time was in 1988. Since then, the elections have almost always been progressive due to a coalition crisis or a strategic move by the Prime Minister to maximize his chances reelection.
Education Minister Naftali Bennett of the pro-colonizing Jewish Home party was the first to launch, threatening to leave the coalition when he was not named defense minister at the time. the place of Lieberman. This seemed unlikely, however, given the bad blood between the two and the generally fragile nature of such a thin coalition.
The government is also facing the looming deadline imposed by the Supreme Court to enact a new contentious law requiring the military recruitment of ultra-Orthodox men. He deeply divided the coalition and threatened to separate it even before Lieberman was eliminated.
"It was very difficult last night to find someone in the political establishment who would say the elections are far away, any date between March and May 2019 seems logical," wrote columnist Ben Caspit. in the daily Maariv. "The Netanyahu government is tripping."
With such uncertainty, the main players are already positioning themselves.
"This government has failed to establish deterrence.This is not a right-wing government and its existence makes no sense," said on Israeli Army Radio Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, a colleague of Bennett's party. "Bennett could be of great help to the Prime Minister as Minister of Defense."
Netanyahu reportedly flirted with the idea of advancing the elections himself, but the current timetable is not ideal for him. He was strongly criticized for accepting the ceasefire, particularly from within his own political base and in the southern Israeli workers' towns hit by rockets and which are typically bastions. of the ruling Likud party.
A poll was released Wednesday on the most popular Israeli TV news after Lieberman resigned. He revealed that 74 percent of Israelis were unhappy with Netanyahu's treatment of the recent Gaza crisis.
Netanyahu still seemed to have little competition for the post of Prime Minister, although support for his Likud party has declined compared to previous polls. If the elections were held today, the Likud would seek 29 seats, followed by the centrist Yesh Atid party at 18 and the Labor Party at 11.
The Midgam poll interviewed 500 Israelis and had a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points.
Netanyahu is also vulnerable to a possible indictment for corruption that could disrupt the entire political campaign.
The police have already interrogated Netanyahu a dozen times and recommended that he be charged with corruption and breach of trust in two cases. The first is to take billionaire gifts and the second to have discussed legislation favoring a major newspaper in exchange for positive media coverage. Netanyahu was also questioned about a corruption case involving the Israeli telecommunications giant.
Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit is expected to rule on the charges in the coming months.
Netanyahu angrily rejected the accusations against him in a witch hunt orchestrated by the media and obsessed with his dismissal.
