Israel govt in crisis after lawmaker quits coalition

JERUSALEM • Israel's fragile government has been thrown into crisis after a senior lawmaker quit the coalition, leaving it without a majority in Parliament and auguring a return to the political instability that has hobbled the country in recent years.

Ms Idit Silman, the chair of the governing coalition and effectively its Chief Whip, said in a letter to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett that she was resigning because coalition colleagues had failed to compromise and that the government's direction did not reflect the values of the right-wing voters who brought their party, Yamina, to power.

She said it was time to change course and to try to form a new "national, Jewish, Zionist" coalition with right-wing lawmakers.

The move followed prolonged tensions among leftist, secular, Arab and right-wing members of the coalition, a fractious group of eight parties that agreed to work together only last June after four inconclusive elections in two years had left the country without a functional government or a state budget.

The coalition crisis comes after a series of deadly terrorist attacks that had already put pressure on the government.

Israel's security forces remain on high alert amid fears of more unrest and violence over the next month, when the rare convergence of Ramadan, Passover and Easter is expected to raise tensions further between Israelis and Palestinians.

Ms Silman's resignation on Wednesday means the government can count on the support of only 60 members in the 120-seat Parliament, losing the razor-thin, one-seat majority it has had since June.

Her departure from the coalition does not mean the government will immediately collapse or - in the absence of further defections - give a parliamentary majority to the opposition, which is led by Benjamin Netanyahu, the former prime minister and the leader of the conservative Likud party.

But once Parliament returns from recess in five weeks' time, the diminished coalition will be unable to pass legislation without the support of opposition lawmakers, and the opposition would need only one more coalition lawmaker to cross the lines to muster a possible majority to disperse Parliament and force new elections.

Netanyahu immediately welcomed Ms Silman's decision, and he exhorted other right-wing members of the coalition to follow her example.

While the timing of Ms Silman's resignation was a surprise, the coalition was fragile and few analysts expected it to last a full four-year term. Its one-seat majority always meant that just a single defection would be enough to threaten the government's collapse.

The eight parties in the coalition shared little in coming together last summer beyond their desire to oust Netanyahu, who had refused to resign despite the corruption charges against him. This prompted some of his long-term allies to leave his party and form their own right-wing factions.

NYTIMES