JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Yamina rebel Nir Orbach holds in his hands the key to when the Knesset dissolution will occur. Orbach heads the prestigious House Committee in the Knesset, the committee which must now review the dissolution law which passed its initial stage in the Knesset Wednesday. If Orbach would choose to convene the committee this week he could expedite the process of dispersal as well as the instating of Yair Lapid as caretaker Prime Minister instead of Alternative Prime Minister.
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However Orbach wishes to exhaust the option of forming an alternative Likud-led government. Currently the opposition numbers 55 but Interior Minister Shaked and presumably MK Abir Kare would join an alternative government. Shaked however would have to resign her ministerial position to join such a move, since as a minister she is not at present a member of Knesset.
In order to attain the majority required, opposition leader Netanyahu will need the support of members of the New Hope party, who so far have resisted his overtures.
New Hope Leader Gidon Saar has stated that he will not sit with Netanyahu and even tried to bring a bill which would block politicians under indictment from serving in public office. However New Hope were recently reported to have be in negotiations with Likud. The contact allegedly ended following the opposition’s successful block of a periodically required bill to renew the application of Israeli law to settlers in Judea and Samaria.
Current polls place New Hope in jeopardy of failing the election threshold in a new Knesset and therefore a number of MKs from the party may be eyeing an alliance with Likud in return for prominent positions in an alternative government.
If the House Committee convenes on Monday and authorizes the dissolution, the coalition is expected to send the dispersal bill to the Constitutional, Law and Justice Committee, headed by coalition MK Gilad Kariv (Labor), for an expedited review process. The earliest the Knesset dispersal can be finalized is on Monday, but it may extend late into next week.
This past Monday, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid announced that they would disband the Knesset and send Israel back to its fifth election in three and a half years. Bennett and Lapid said they had “exhausted” avenues to stabilize their rocky minority coalition.
Assuming the bid to form an alternative government in this Knesset fails, elections are expected at the end of October or early November, with November 1 emerging as a likely date.