Government to begin hearing bills to dissolve Knesset

Yacimovich: Labor will vote for September 4 elections; Kadima reiterates bid to delay Knesset dissolution, seeking first to pass alternative to Tal Law, which allows haredim to defer IDF service indefinitely.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Knesset building 390 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post)
Knesset building 390
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post)
The government was set to begin discussing on Monday bills submitted by Likud, Labor and Meretz to dissolve the Knesset, Israel Radio reported.
Labor leader Shelly Yacimovich told Israel Radio Monday morning that her party would vote to hold elections on September 4th.
Meanwhile, Kadima chairwoman Dalia Itzik failed to reply on how her party would vote, saying that her party demands that first a new law must replace the Tal Law, and immediately after that the bills to dissolve the Knesset can be voted on. Her comments reiterated calls released by her party Sunday to delay early elections in order to pass alternative legislation to the Tal Law which allows haredi (ultra-Orthodox) men to indefinitely defer IDF service and was recently invalidated by the High Court of Justice. Dissolution of the Knesset would automatically extend the Tal Law, which was set to expire on August 1, for six to eight months.
"All parties must end the wheeling and dealing; we have here an historic opportunity- first we must fix the Tal Law- then we can go to elections," Kadima said in a statement.
In an address to the Likud convention in Tel Aviv on Sunday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that an early election will ensure political stability, as he justified his decision to schedule a vote for September. “The achievements of this government are a result of a joint vision and a partnership that was possible due to political stability,” Netanyahu said. “We have not had such a stable government in decades.”
Earlier Sunday, Yisrael Beytenu faction chairman Robert Ilatov requested a postponement to the vote to dissolve the Knesset in order to allow more time for a Yisrael Beytenu Tal Law-alternative to pass.
Lahav Harkov contributed to this article