Israel dissolves parliament as Netanyahu fails to form cabinet
Israel faces an unprecedented snap
election campaign - the second this year - after Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu failed to form a governing coalition and dissolved parliament
instead.
Israel’s newly elected Knesset
dissolved itself early on Thursday.
The Knesset voted 74-45 in favor of
dissolving itself and setting a new election date for September 17.
It’s a shocking setback from
Netanyahu, who had appeared to secure a comfortable win in last month’s
election.
But he was unable to build a
parliamentary majority to rule because a traditional ally, AvigdorLieberman,
refused to bring his Yisrael Beiteinu faction into the coalition.
Netanyahu, who has led Israel for
the past decade, now faces another challenge to his lengthy rule.
It comes as he prepares for a
pre-indictment hearing before expected criminal charges against him in a series
of corruption cases.
