In the days preceding the dissolution of the Knesset in late May, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu checked with the heads of the ultra-Orthodox parties to see whether they would back this move. While Chairman of Yisrael Beitenu Avigdor Liberman was adding more and more obstacles to the coalition negotiations, Netanyahu was preparing for the possibility that he would not have a government by the legal deadline. That was when the option of dissolving the Knesset was first put openly on the table in the most concrete terms. “He didn’t want to reach a situation in which the president asks [Blue and White head] Benny Gantz to form a government, and was concerned that the Likud might do something to remove him. That was why he wanted to make sure that we would support his decision to dissolve the Knesset under any circumstances. We promised him that we were right there with him,” a senior official from ultra-Orthodox party Shas told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity.

Everyone knows what happened next. Despite all assessments, on the night of May 30, the Knesset took the unprecedented step of dissolving itself just one month after its members were sworn in. There were 74 Knesset members, including 16 from ultra-Orthodox parties Shas and Yahadut HaTorah, who kept their promise to Netanyahu and voted to support the dissolution of the Knesset. The generous coalition agreements, which were supposed to be signed with them, included billions of shekels and numerous positions of power in the government and Knesset committees. All at once, these agreements were junked.

Immediately after the vote, Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri made an emotional statement saying that he had to apologize to Netanyahu, whom, he claimed, believed correctly that Liberman intended to stay out of the coalition, while he tried to convince the prime minister that Liberman would eventually give in and join. “I was wrong about this and the prime minister was right. Turns out that I did not know Liberman well enough,” Deri said.

Once the Knesset was dissolved, a senior official in Netanyahu’s office told Al-Monitor that the prime minister was spared a putsch. According to him, had Netanyahu failed to dissolve the Knesset, he would have lost his position as prime minister.