Peretz's Cabinet resignation hastens Israeli elections
The resignation of Environmental Protection Minister Amir Peretz accelerated two low-intensity processes: the disintegration of the government and the consolidation of center-left forces, with the objective of creating an anti-Netanyahu bloc.
Minister of Environmental Protection Amir Peretz is the second minister to leave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s third government within the space of a week. True, Netanyahu and his tottering government managed to contain the Nov. 3 resignation of Gideon Saar, a popular interior minister and Likud member. But the Nov. 9 resignation of Peretz, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni’s partner in the Hatnua Party, is another story altogether.
Netanyahu parted from Peretz with a sarcastic remark at the Cabinet meeting in which the environmental minister announced his resignation. Now, the next-in-line explosions in Netanyahu’s government are only a matter of time. This is expected to be followed by the final collapse of the government, perhaps even in the coming months.
A scenario of elections in the spring — two years after the formation of the current government — is not an imaginary one. It seems to be clear already that 2015 will be an election year.
While Peretz’s resignation was somewhat overshadowed by the harsh reports from the fiery front with Israel's Arabs, the resignation will ultimately be viewed as the reference point where the countdown of the last days began for one of the most bizarre governments we have ever known. The composition of this government was forced on Netanyahu by the unnatural alliance between the stars of the last elections, Finance Minister Yair Lapid and Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett.
