It looks like Israelis will, indeed, be returning to the voting booth for the third time in less than a year. On the night of Nov. 20, Blue and White Chairman Benny Gantz informed President Reuven Rivlin of his inability to cobble together a coalition in the time allotted to him. Thus, in the words of players on the political scene, the election campaign for the 23rd Knesset is just around the corner. Though the law dictates that the government mandate now go to Knesset members for 21 days — meaning that any of them can now attempt to recruit 61 signatures to form a government under his or her aegis — it is doubtful that anyone will succeed given that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Gantz have already failed at the task.
The campaign for the next election is yet to get underway, but it is expected to be uglier and nastier than its predecessors. It most certainly will feature the indictments that Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit announced Nov. 21 against Netanyahu for bribery and other corruption-related charges. The annexation of the Jordan Valley is another issue expected to top the political agenda.
On Nov. 4, Knesset member Sharren Haskell (Likud) submitted a proposal for a bill to extend Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley, but it received little attention at the time. Netanyahu and Gantz were engaged in a wrestling match, and no one wanted to deal with an annexation proposal uncertain to attract a majority in a disorderly Knesset. The political picture has since changed: Gantz failed to assemble a government, another election campaign is on the horizon, and suddenly Netanyahu is urging Haskell to promote her bill ASAP.
Haskell didn’t have time to digest Netanyahu's abrupt change in attitude before the prime minister tweeted his endorsement of an immediate annexation on Nov. 19. Thus, while Gantz was making his way to Jerusalem for a decisive meeting with Netanyahu in his chambers, a video in the prime minister's tweet was circulating, showing Netanyahu claiming that only a broad unity government could annex the Jordan Valley. At the same time, Gantz, it was alleged, preferred a narrow government with the Arabs.
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