Liberman says lack of budget for next year indicates Netanyahu could dissolve Knesset in November

Avigdor Liberman, head of the opposition Yisrael Beyteinu party, says he believes that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will dissolve the Knesset and call fresh elections in November.

Speaking at a conference organized by the Calcalist newspaper, Liberman was commenting on the failure of the current government to start meaningful work on next year’s national budget.

“They are not submitting the budget, because they don’t want to pass it,” Liberman says.  “My conclusion is that Prime Minister Netanyahu will himself dissolve the Knesset in November.”

“I hope we will manage to dissolve it sooner. We want a wall-to-wall broad Zionist coalition. Without that we can’t fix anything,” he says.

Speaking later in the day at a meeting of his faction at the Knesset, Liberman doubled down on his assessment that Netanyahu would call a vote in November, adding that holding elections prior to the end of the year could serve to postpone the prime minister’s pending testimony in his corruption trial