Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's May 14 assessment that the next election will not be moved up was intended to stifle the buzz in Israeli political circles. According to him, the election will be held as scheduled, in November 2019.
Over the last few weeks, Netanyahu watched as a coalition crisis over Israel's Public Broadcasting Corporation — a crisis for which he was responsible — threatened to see the Knesset dissolved and set his coalition partners into campaign mode. Netanyahu threatened Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon in March with early elections unless the Kulanu chair accepted a compromise on the issue.