In a preliminary vote, the Israeli Knesset passed a motion to dissolve itself by 61 to 54 Dec. 2. Lawmakers from the Blue and White Party headed by Benny Gantz supported the motion, which will now move to the Knesset committee for debate this week before a first reading.

Following the vote, the prime minister scheduled a prime-time press conference in which he accused his partners in the government, Gantz and the rest of the Blue and White, of violating the coalition agreement in dissolving the Knesset. Though everything about the content and timing was business as usual for Benjamin Netanyahu, the media outlets did something unheard of: they fact-checked Netanyahu’s speech and respond to inaccuracies in real time. News 13 ran a graphic comparing the prime minister’s claims and the facts.

In two columns, News 13 compared “what was said” against the “facts.” Where Netanyahu claimed that Blue and White is violating the coalition agreement, the station posted under “facts,” “The Likud violated paragraph 30 of the coalition agreement that determined that a two-year budget would be passed.”

News 12 went further. Presenter Keren Marciano corrected the inaccuracies in Netanyahu's speech while he gave it. As Netanyahu spoke about battling the pandemic, he offered a list of countries he said were similar in population to Israel and claimed they suffer higher infection rates. The station was quick to note other countries with similarly sized populations Netanyahu did not mention: Greece, Serbia, Slovakia, Lebanon and Denmark, which are all faring better than Israel.