The 23rd Knesset officially dissolved on Tuesday night as the deadline to approve a 2020 budget expired, sending Israelis to the polls for the fourth time in less than two years. Elections were automatically called for March 23, 2021.
Efforts to avoid or at least stave off another round of elections were doomed when parliament narrowly rejected a bill that would have pushed back the deadline for passing the state budget.
This dramatic development came a mere seven months after the swearing-in of the unity government between Likud and Blue and White. The two parties, which had squared off in three indecisive elections, agreed to form a power-sharing coalition with a rotating premiership between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz in May.
A pair of television polls aired Tuesday evening put Netanyahu’s guaranteed bloc — Likud and the two ultra-Orthodox parties — well short of a majority, with one of the surveys showing former Likud minister Gidon Sa’ar nipping at the long-time premier’s heels in terms of who is better suited to lead the country. However, in both polls Likud was forecast to be the largest vote getter.
Meanwhile, a Palestinian official on Tuesday was optimistic that a general election would not derail Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s initiative to convene an international peace conference in the Middle East early next year.
“The elections will undoubtedly delay our efforts to hold the conference, but this will only be a temporary postponement,” the official said. “We are optimistic that a Biden administration will endorse the international conference initiative, even if Netanyahu is reelected.”
The heads of a joint Israeli-American delegation held high-level talks Tuesday with Moroccan officials, including King Mohammed VI. Following the meeting, representatives from the three countries — Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita, Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner and Israeli National Security Adviser Ben-Shabbat — issued a trilateral declaration, which included an obligation to “resume full official contacts between Israeli and Moroccan counterparts” by the end of next month.
The declaration included a pledge to quickly begin direct flights, promote economic cooperation, reopen liaison offices and move toward “full diplomatic, peaceful and friendly relations.”
In related news, The Trump Administration has reportedly offered to dramatically increase aid to Jakarta by up to $2 billion if it were to normalize relations ties with Jerusalem. Indonesia is home to the world’s largest Muslim population, with almost 90 percent of its population identifying themselves as Muslims.
The Trump White House is reportedly eyeing opportunities for more Middle East diplomatic breakthroughs in the final weeks before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden on January 20, 2021.
Israel’s Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said on Tuesday that the country’s situation is dire and that there is no choice but for the government to impose a full lockdown.
“We have missed the train with tightened restraints… It will take between two and three months for the vaccine [program] to take effect,” Edelstein maintained. “We are in a critical situation. We wasted precious time, and the state of the infections means we have no choice but to go into lockdown,” the minister added.
Edelstein’s warning came just hours after national coronavirus chief Nachman Ash urged government officials to make a swift decision on either sending the country back into lockdown or tightening restrictions as daily infection totals exceeded 3,500. Health Ministry figures showed that 3,594 cases had been diagnosed in the previous 24-hour period, the highest number in months.
With a positivity rate over 5 percent and a reproduction rate at 1.3, Edelstein said that the country had entered a third wave.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Israeli high-tech exits jumped 55 percent to a record $15.4 billion in 2020, boosted by a rise in companies holding public share offerings in the United States and Tel Aviv. A new report from auditing and consulting firm PwC found that IPOs accounted for $9.3 billion of this year’s total exits, up from $2.2 billion in 2019. The average value per IPO rose as well, to $489 million from $169 million.
In addition, there were 60 acquisitions of Israeli tech firms, down from 80 in 2019. However, the average deal size rose to $257 million.
The computing and software sector led the exit parade, with a total value of $7.4 billion, followed by the Internet and life sciences sectors.
Technology is a key economic growth driver, comprising nearly 10 percent of Israel’s workforce.
“It is too early to talk about the end of the crisis and many tech companies are actually experiencing challenges, but it may be possible to start, with due caution, hoping COVID might be soon behind us,” said Yaron Weizenbluth, partner and head of tech at PwC Israel.
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