Herzog: Government is "stuck," stagnation taking country in wrong direction.
By JPOST.COM STAFFknesset (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
The Labor and Meretz factions put forward a bill on Monday that would dissolve the Knesset and trigger an election – likely in March. The Knesset is due to vote on the legislation on Wednesday.There are two ways to set off early elections: The first is to pass a Knesset dispersal bill in three readings. The other, is for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to tell President Reuven Rivlin that he can no longer govern and ask him to disperse the Knesset.At the Knesset on Monday Netanyahu's harshest critics –who are behind the bill – lashed out at the government. Opposition leader Isaac Herzog said the government "is stuck" and that its stagnation was, with "each passing day," taking the country a step back.With the coalition "engaged in ego battles," there is no one running the country, Herzog said, urging an end to the stalemate.He said the citizens of Israel – which he called hostages in the hands of Netanyahu and Lapid – deserved different leadership, namely, a "sane" and "proactive" government.Meretz chief Zehava Gal-On echoed his remarks saying the government had to be dispersed. Outlining a list its failures from "defending Israel's democracy and human rights," to tackling the ever-growing economic gaps, to the stagnant peace process – "it is only appropriate" that the Knesset would dissolve "as quickly as possible."
