Israel dissolves parliament

ISRAEL’S parliament voted yesterday to dissolve itself and paved the way to the country’s fifth election in less than four years after a fragile governing coalition collapsed.

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid will become interim prime minister, replacing Naftali Bennett, until a new government is formed following elections on November 1. Bennett does not intend to run in the next vote. Lapid and Bennett announced their plan to dissolve Israel’s parliament, known as the Knesset, on June 20. The vote throws Israel back into renewed political instability just weeks before US President Joe Biden’s first visit to the Middle East next month.

The government’s collapse also comes at a sensitive time for Israel as it looks to expand regional security and defense partnerships with Arab countries while engaging in an increasingly overt shadow war with Iran.

Bennett’s year-old coalition had grouped together an uneasy alliance of secular and religious factions, hawks and doves, free marketeers and social democrats, as well as an Arab party for the first time in Israeli history.

For opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu,, the demise of the coalition could present an opportunity to return to power..