Yachimovich calls for early elections

Opposition head Shelly Yachimovich called Tuesday for the Knesset to be dissolved and for early elections to be set. She described the current government as dysfunctional.

The call by the Labor Party head comes as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition seems on the verge of collapse, following threats by the Kadima party to leave the government.

“The elections were scheduled for September and staved off by the cynical survival exercise of Likud and Kadima, which left them in a huge, useless coalition that cannot even produce a reasonable consensus around the Tal Law [relating to IDF conscription for the ultra-Orthodox],” Yachimovich said.

Kadima joined the government in May, with one of the tenets of its agreeing to join being the creation of a panel to draft new universal conscription legislation. On Monday, Netanyahu announced the Kadima-led committee would be disbanded, sending his coalition into a tailspin.

Following the move Kadima head Shaul Mofaz said he would reconsider the party’s place in the government, and other party members have called openly to join the opposition.

“The voting public must now decide between the Likud headed by Netanyahu and the Labor Party led by myself,” Yachimovich said. “There are crucial economic, social and civic issues at stake and the public deserves for those to be decided not by shady deals and wheeling and dealing, but on the firm basis of values.”

Yachimovich expressed support for Kadima MKs Shlomo Molla, Robert Tiviaev and Nino Abesadze, who earlier Tuesday demanded their party leave the coalition immediately.

“Netanyahu is playing around, making a joke out of us,” said Molla. “From tomorrow on I will be voting against the government.”