Netanyahu faces coalition crisis as haredi parties threaten to block state budget vote
Both haredi parties have threatened to withhold support for the state budget unless agreements are reached on the draft law to avoid conscription.
Both haredi parties have threatened to withhold support for the state budget unless agreements are reached on the draft law to avoid conscription.
The letter comes amid shifting dynamics within Israel’s opposition bloc as parties aim to gain enough seats to beat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the next elections.
This is the second time Ernst and Netanyahu have met in the last year, with them previously meeting in August 2025, when the war with Hamas was still ongoing in Gaza.
POLITICAL AFFAIRS: Two significant political developments played out this week as Israel moves towards elections. Gadi Eisenkot and Yonatan Shamriz took the reflectors with key announcements.
The opposition had been standing at 60 seats, at the cusp of a majority, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition remained at 50 seats. The Arab parties, meanwhile, stand at 10 seats.
The bloc, once made up of the four Arab parties, began to break apart ahead of the 2021 elections after Ra’am left the alliance.
Eisenkot has proposed creating a unified list for the upcoming elections with former prime minister Naftali Bennett and Opposition leader Yair Lapid.
Case 4000 centers on allegations that Netanyahu, while serving as prime minister and communications minister, advanced regulatory benefits worth hundreds of millions of shekels to Bezeq.
The newly elected mayor secured a first-round victory, defeating three other candidates and officially concluding the election campaign.
Arnon Bar-David, the longtime chairman of Israel’s largest labor federation, became the central figure in a sweeping corruption investigation that came to light in November.
Eisenkot’s office confirmed his proposal to the rival party leaders to The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday, after it was initially reported on N12.