Thanks to IMRA for posting the details of the government coalition law in English.
At present, a period which has lasted months already, the State of Israel has had a version of a “lame duck government.” It’s not the same sort of “lame duck” that exists in the United States. In the Israeli version, it has the following characterisitcs:
* the ministers are of the previous government coalition
* the new MKs have been sworn in and are working as MKs
* the MK who has been given the responsibility/opportunity to form a new coalition hasn’t yet done it
Political pundits are floating all sorts of scenarios about possible coalition deals and even possible new elections. Recently, Netanyahu has requested and was granted a 14 day extension to form a new coalition government by President Shimon Peres.
If Netanyahu fails to create/negotiate a new coalition, that doesn’t mean that we’re going directly into elections. There are a few more stages, and if a majority of this Knesset never manage to agree/compromise enough to work together as a coalition, we won’t have elections for a few months.
Here’s the time table according to IMRA:
Elections
Publications of results
Max 7 days President assigns task of forming government after consultations
28 days first attempt to form government
14 days extension
3 days maximum before assign task to a second MK
28 days to form government by second MK
21 days for a majority of MKs to nominate third MK to form a government
2 days for President to announce appointment of the third MK
14 days for third MK to form government President announces government cannot be formed.
Last Tuesday before the end of 90 days elections held
In all that time the previous Prime Minister remains. So like it or not, coalition or not, Netanyahu may continue as Prime Minister for quite a while. Who wants to add up the days to see how many months he may last without needing a coalition?
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