Netanyahu May Announce Early Elections Tonight

Following meetings with the heads of the parties in the coalition, Prime Minister Netanyahu will be holding a press conference at 8 PM in Jerusalem on Tuesday. It's believed he will be announcing early elections, perhaps to be held as early as February 2013.

If Netanyahu doesn't call for elections, then he needs to start preparing to pass the budget for 2013-2014, something that sources say has not been worked on seriously.

By holding early elections, Netanyahu will miss the historic opportunity to be the only Prime Minister in Israeli history to serve his entire term. On the other hand, by holding early election now, Netanyahu will be going into elections from a position of strength, and not hurt by the political damage trying to get the budget passed might cause him.