Early election must be avoided: Netanyahu

World
Europe

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that he wanted his government to complete its term, putting the onus of triggering an expected early election onto a coalition partner.

Netanyahu has faced calls from his coalition members to hold a snap election after the resignation of Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Wednesday.

Israel's Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, who heads the Kulanu party, was the first coalition partner to call for an early election after meeting Netanyahu on Thursday.

Kahlon's calls were echoed by Aryeh Deri, head of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party and by members of the nationalist Jewish Home whose head, Naftali Bennett, asked to succeed Lieberman as defense chief but was turned down by Netanyahu on Friday.

Former Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman at a meeting, Jerusalem, Israel, May 13, 2018. /VCG Photo

The loss of Lieberman's Israel Beitenu faction leaves Netanyahu with control of just 61 of the 120 seats in parliament. Each of the remaining government factions now has the power to effectively dissolve the coalition.

Netanyahu, who heads the Likud party said that he will meet Kahlon on Sunday "in a last attempt to convince him not to bring down the government."

"If the Kulanu faction doesn't bring the government down - there is a government," Netanyahu said on Twitter. "All Likud members want to keep serving the country for another whole year until the end of the term in November 2019."

"That kind of spin doesn't work on me," Kahlon said in response on Hadashot television news. "It's impossible to run a coalition with sixty-one Knesset members."

"We're heading for an election - there is no government," Bennett told Israel's Meet the Press on Saturday. "There's a blame-game being fought on who will be the one to pronounce it dead."

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks in a conference, Jerusalem, Israel, October 4, 2018. /VCG Photo

Both Lieberman and Bennett compete with Netanyahu's Likud for right-wing voters and have spoken in favor of harsh Israeli military action against Gaza's dominant Hamas Islamists.

The parliament elections are expected to be held on March 26, 2019, and a final decision is expected on Sunday after talks between the heads of the coalition factions.

(Top image: Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a meeting, New York, September 27, 2018. /VCG Photo)

(With inputs from agencies)