Israeli coalition collapse sets up Netanyahu-Lapid political showdown
With new elections on the horizon, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid prepare themselves for the ultimate fight.
The Knesset approved a preliminary vote dissolving the parliament today. Thus, if all goes as the coalition plans, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid will take over soon as prime minister. As part of the coalition/rotation agreement with incumbent Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, if the Knesset is dissolved and early elections are announced, Lapid automatically becomes prime minister. He doesn’t even need to be sworn in, since he was already sworn in as alternative prime minister.
Israeli politics has been subjected to a barrage of inconceivable events in the last three years, and this last move of dissolving the Knesset is certainly one of them. Up until June 20, Lapid and current Prime Minister Naftali Bennett stated publicly that they were struggling to preserve their coalition, even after it lost its majority. Then, just a few hours later, the two men appeared again before the cameras to drop their bombshell.
