JERUSALEM (BLOOMBERG) - The coalition crisis brewing between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his main coalition partner deepened over the weekend, resulting in the rare cancellation of the Cabinet's weekly Sunday (Aug 9) meeting.
Mr Netanyahu's Likud and Defence Minister Benny Gantz's Blue and White are at odds over the former's proposed 8.5 billion shekel (S$3.42 billion) supplement to the government's coronavirus relief programme.
Mr Gantz said the details of the expensive programme are incomplete, while Likud says Blue and White is withholding much-needed aid from Israeli citizens.
The dispute is part of a larger feud that's clouding the coalition's survival.
The government is required by law to pass a budget by late August, but Mr Netanyahu is baulking at honouring a provision in their coalition agreement to craft a two-year spending plan.
If no budget is approved by that deadline, or the law isn't amended, Parliament will be dissolved and a fourth election in less than two years will be held.
A two-year spending plan would deny Mr Netanyahu the ability to bring down the government over the budget next year before Mr Gantz is to take over as premier in November 2021 under their rotation deal.
Likud says officials have to move quickly on the budget to anchor the virus-battered economy and that drafting a one-year plan alone would take less time.
