Knesset set to begin process of dissolution on Monday

With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu having called Tuesday night for elections “as soon as possible,” legislation detailing the nitty-gritty of dispersing the Knesset and holding elections is set be submitted to the parliament for the various rounds of voting as early as Monday.

According to Knesset legal adviser Eyal Yinon, a new law must be drafted at the start of the Knesset’s winter session next week because a previous Knesset dispersal law was nixed in May, just ahead of its third and final reading. It would not be possible to revive that stymied law, Yinon told Israel Radio.

Netanyahu had called early elections in May, and the bill had been passed in a second reading, when he suddenly concluded an improbable coalition partnership with Kadima, and the move toward elections was postponed. That Likud-Kadima partnership — intended to grapple with conscription for the ultra-Orthodox, electoral reform, Palestinian peacemaking and a viable policy on Iran — held for fewer than 80 days before it collapsed in an orgy of mutual recrimination, and Kadima leader Shaul Mofaz is now one of the prime minister’s most relentless critics.

Yinon on Tuesday explained the legal need for fresh legislation to Knesset House Committee Chairman MK Yariv Levin (Likud), saying that a new law was crucial in that it would enable serving MKs to weigh in on the decision to disperse the Knesset and call elections.

In the interim, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin (Likud) said Tuesday he would ensure that Knesset members did not exploit the vacuum to push through self-serving and costly legislation.