With time running out on his coalition, Netanyahu to address nation

Amid an escalating coalition crisis that seems poised to thrust Israel into a fourth election since last April, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address the nation tonight.

A statement from his office calls a press conference for 8:30 p.m., just half an hour before a key Knesset committee is set to vote on a measure that could potentially give respite to the troubled coalition.

At the heart of the ongoing crisis is whether the government should pass a budget that includes 2021, as stipulated in the coalition agreement and backed by the Blue and White party, or a budget that only covers the rest of 2020, as Netanyahu’s Likud has insisted, citing the uncertainty caused by the pandemic.

As it stands, failure to pass a state budget by Monday night will trigger automatic elections.

However, Likud and Blue and White have been arguing over the terms of a compromise deal that would remove the immediate threat of new elections by postponing by 100 days the deadline for passing a state budget.

So far, there have been few indications that an understanding is in the offing, ahead of a 9 p.m. Knesset Finance Committee vote on the compromise measure.