193-member assembly likely to adopt text calling for unconditional and permanent ceasefire, days after US vetoed similar effort in security council
Israel’s parliament rejected early this morning a preliminary vote to dissolve itself, the Knesset said in a statement, after an agreement was reached regarding a dispute over conscription, Reuters reports.
The vote, which could have been a first step leading to an early election that polls show prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu would lose, was rejected with 61 opposing it to 53 supporting it.
The Knesset consists of 120 seats, and the majority needed to pass the vote was 61. This gives Netanyahu’s ruling coalition further time to resolve its worst political crisis yet and avoid a ballot, which would be Israel’s first since the eruption of the war with Hamas in Gaza.
Netanyahu has been pushing hard to resolve a deadlock in his coalition over a new military conscription bill, which has led to the present crisis.
