Netanyahu said demanding coalition deal be changed for government not to dissolve

With a standoff over the state budget threatening to send Israel to new elections, Channel 12 news reports Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is demanding Defense Minister Benny Gantz agree to changes to the coalition deal as a condition for not dissolving the government.

According to the report, Netanyahu is demanding that elections automatically be called if the High Court of Justice strikes down parts of the coalition deal after he hands over the premiership to Gantz in November 2021. He is also reportedly demanding that a committee for appointing senior legal officials be cancelled.

Netanyahu’s Likud party and Gantz’s Blue and White are holding negotiations on the matter, the report says.

The network’s Daphna Liel describes the disagreement over whether to pass a budget through 2021, as the coalition deal stipulates, or one that only covers the rest of 2020, as Netanyahu is demanding, as secondary to the premier’s efforts to change his agreement with Gantz in the current political crisis.