Netanyahu threatens elections over ‘undermining’ ministers

Hours ahead of a scheduled meeting with Finance Minister Yair Lapid, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that he would call early elections if members of his coalition continued to “undermine and attack” his policies.

Amid growing criticism of Netanyahu from several ministers in his coalition, the prime minster warned that unless the government could work together “harmoniously,” he would initiate elections for early next year, two years ahead of schedule.

During a Likud faction meeting Monday, Netanyahu decried to MKs from his party the lack of coalition support for his domestic and diplomatic policies, saying, “My diplomatic policies are constantly attacked, where even construction in Jerusalem becomes a controversial issue.”

He went on to accuse coalition members of trying to oust him, and told the MKs that although he was “reluctant” to call for early elections, he would do so if it was in Israel’s best interests.

“I have not received even the most basic obligation — the loyalty and responsibility of ministers to the government in which they serve,” Netanyahu said.

The prime minister was scheduled to meet with two of his most outspoken critics, Lapid and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, later on Monday, in what appears to be a last-ditch effort to patch his fraying coalition.

The prime minister’s five-party governing coalition has been teetering on the brink of collapse amid bitter differences over the 2015 budget and the controversial “Jewish state” bill, which critics say discriminates against Israel’s Arab minority.

At a Yesh Atid Knesset faction meeting on Monday, Lapid warned that early elections would harm the economy and stall important legislation in the Knesset. He said that he believed the coalition could be salvaged and urged Netanyahu to leave political considerations out of his calculus.

“My only obligation is to the Israeli public. We don’t have ‘associates,’ we don’t have ‘jobs’ to distribute and we don’t have central committee members who can pressure us. All we want is to work, with the entire government, for the citizens of the State of Israel,” Lapid said.

Livni, another outspoken critic of Netanyahu’s “Jewish state” bill, told Hatnua party members that “Netanyahu is right: It has to be one or the other. It’s wrong to go to elections while continuing to advance racist legislation and allowing extremists, some of whom are in the coalition, to have their way.”

The “Jewish state” bill, which would enshrine Israel’s character as a Jewish state among the country’s Basic Laws — its de facto constitution — has come under harsh criticism from Livni and Lapid, both of whom have insisted that they will break ranks with the coalition and vote against the bill should it be brought to the plenum in its current form.

Despite the criticism, Netanyahu has vowed to push the measure through, saying that it would guarantee equal rights for all of the country’s citizens and put Israel’s democratic and Jewish aspects on equal footing.

The bill, which was originally due to be voted on last week, has been rewritten several times and met with a number of setbacks and delays.