The Knesset decided on May 29 to disband and to hold new elections in September. The impact of that night’s decision, in contradiction of all logic, just one month after the Israeli parliament was sworn in, is now becoming clearer. Beyond the economic damage of two election cycles in one year, the governing system has entered a period of instability.
Israel has never had a situation where a leader of party who has an assured coalition majority has failed to form a government. It has never had a leader of a party who was charged with forming a government and failed, who did not return the mandate he received to the president but led the country to a new election. Thus the 21st Knesset, which was sworn in on April 30 and disbanded on Wednesday this week, had the shortest term in the history of Israel. It actually never even started work.
On June 3, after the Knesset chooses the new state comptroller, it will disband for a long election recess. This recess will end when the 22nd Knesset is sworn in toward the end of September. In the meantime, the 21st Knesset hasn’t started on a regular work schedule. Since a coalition was not formed, there has not been a chairman of the opposition. This isn’t a mere technical problem — this is an official role, one of the symbols of the state. The chairman of Blue and White, Benny Gantz, was supposed to be named as the head of the largest party, but with no coalition, there’s no opposition. Thus, the prime minister does not need to fulfill his obligation by law to periodically update the head of the opposition on ongoing or irregular security matters.
In addition, no Knesset committee has been formed save for a temporary finance committee headed by Knesset member Moshe Gafni (Yahadut HaTorah). This committee deals with matters that cannot be delayed, thus the committee authorized reparations for residents of the south following the latest round of fighting in Gaza. Aside from that, no legislative topic has been advanced. Knesset members who gave their inaugural speeches in the last two weeks will have to stash away their plans and the proposed laws they intended to advance. Some of them won’t return to the Knesset.
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