Netanyahu rival launches push to dissolve Israeli parliament amid split over Gaza war

Benny Gantz submits a bill to dissolve parliament, saying he’d take his party out of government if Netanyahu doesn’t articulate a plan for ending the war in Gaza.

Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz has launched a bid to dissolve parliament. Picture: AFP.

Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz’s party submitted a bill to dissolve parliament, in a move analysts said is unlikely to lead to a vote soon but opens the door for a battle over elections as early as this summer.

Gantz, a longtime rival of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said earlier this month that he would take his centrist National Unity party out of the government on June 8 if the Israeli leader doesn’t articulate a plan for ending the war in Gaza and securing the enclave, among other demands.

Since then, Netanyahu has signalled he has no intention of acceding to Gantz’s demands. His Likud party said Thursday that dissolving the government would be a gift to Israel’s enemies and hurt efforts to return hostages captured in Hamas’s deadly Oct. 7 attacks.

Gantz, a former head of the Israeli military, took his party into the government shortly after the attacks. His party has enjoyed a comfortable lead over Likud in the polls since Oct. 7, but in recent weeks the trend has begun to move back in Netanyahu’s favour.

Gantz would need at least 61 of the 120 politicians to vote to dissolve the parliament. There are no indications he has such a majority yet.

“The National Unity party wants to show it is serious about leaving the coalition,” said Gayil Talshir, a professor of political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The bill to dissolve parliament needs at least 45 days before it can begin the long legislative process to a final vote, a process which the government will likely be able to delay until the summer session of parliament comes to an end, said Chen Friedberg, a senior researcher at Israel Democracy Institute.

But the fact that the bill will be discussed over the summer leaves open the possibility of a political surprise if Netanyahu loses control over his coalition, Friedberg said.

Should Gantz leave the government, it could fuel weekly anti-government protests that have been attracting thousands, and sometimes tens of thousands, of people in recent months.

Gantz has argued that Israelis experienced a loss of faith in the government after Oct. 7 and that Israel should hold elections to restore faith in their leadership.

The National Unity party’s move on Thursday also comes as Gantz has been bleeding political support.

Since Oct. 7, Gantz’s party has at times had double the support of Netanyahu’s Likud, according to a majority of polls. But a poll released Wednesday by Israel’s Channel 12 showed Gantz’s party polling at 25 seats and Netanyahu closing the gap with 21 seats.

The same poll showed that after months of Gantz being preferred over Netanyahu as prime minister, the longtime Israeli leader had returned to the preferred choice with 36 per cent and Gantz with 30 per cent.

Still, if elections were held today, the Channel 12 poll and most others show Netanyahu’s coalition would still be far from being able to form a government.

In another move aimed at ousting Netanyahu, opposition leader Yair Lapid met on Wednesday with two other opposition party leaders to formulate a plan to replace the current government – a first since Oct. 7.

Gadi Eisenkot, an observer in the war cabinet and senior member of Gantz’s party, on Wednesday said that he hopes for elections when the Knesset convenes again in the fall.

“We need to go to elections in the last quarter of this year between September and December,” he said in a speech. “It is very important for building trust.”

Dow Jones