Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz spent over an hour sitting next to each other in the Knesset on Dec. 2. Throughout that entire time, they didn’t exchange a single word. The requisite social distancing between them and the masks they wore because of the coronavirus could not hide their mutual loathing.

The Knesset had convened for a preliminary reading of an opposition bill to dissolve itself. Already on a collision course with Netanyahu, Gantz decided that his Blue and White party would support the motion. It was his way of protesting Netanyahu’s refusal to bring the 2021 budget to the Knesset for approval. The reading passed, as Gantz promised, thanks to the support of members of his party, including its senior ministers. It was an absurd spectacle, reflecting the enduring political chaos: Members of the coalition, including senior ministers, voted against the government of which they are members.

This was just a preliminary reading. The bill still has a lengthy process ahead of it before it can be adopted. Nevertheless, it signaled the end of the coronavirus government, seven months after it was formed to heal the rift in Israeli society and fight back against the ravages of the virus, both medically and economically. The government will hit the end of the road over the next few weeks, leaving an even more divided society in its wake, while COVID-19 continues to rage across the country. The most likely timetable is that elections will take place sometime between March and May 2021. It will be the fourth election in just two years.

It is almost inevitable that efforts will be made to find a compromise in the time remaining before the Knesset is dissolved. Nevertheless, the chance of something dramatic happening to prevent new elections is meager. Both sides are already trapped in a political pileup. Both sides are already blaming each other for the current situation and the overwhelming amount of rot in the system.