Likud, Blue and White fail to make progress in budget talks — report

Finance Minister Israel Katz meets and Defense Minister Benny Gantz fail to make headway toward an agreement on the period of time the new budget will extend for after meeting today, the Kan public broadcaster reports.

“[We’re] approaching elections,” a source involved in the meeting is quoted saying by the broadcaster.

New elections — the fourth since April 2019 — will automatically be triggered if a budget isn’t passed by August 25.

Gantz met earlier today with Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, head of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, to discuss the budget. Deri reportedly urged Gantz to reach a compromise with Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud party and said Shas would back any agreement they reach.

“That’s unacceptable. There’s a coalition agreement and it needs to be honored,” Gantz told Deri, according to Kan.

While Gantz’s Blue and White party and Likud agreed to pass a budget extending through 2021 as part of their deal to form a government, the latter is now insisting on a budget that only runs through the end of this year. Netanyahu has cited the uncertainty linked to the coronavirus pandemic for this stance, though the passage of a short-term budget could allow him to dissolve the government without having to hand over the premiership to Gantz as agreed under the coalition deal.