Early Elections in Israel

Binyamin Netanyahu's announcement that he will call early elections (ostensibly because his present coalition will be unable to agree on a budget) came as no real surprise; since he said elections should be held as soon as possible (which is 90 days after dissolution of the Knesset), the election date is  likely to be in January. Many were already predicting elections by February, since Netanyahu is believed to think he will improve Likud's position by going to early elections; elections are required by October 2013. Last spring there was speculation about early elections; then Shaul Mofaz and Kadima agreed to join a grand coalition and keep the government in power throughout its life span. But Mofaz soon broke with Netanyahu and went back into opposition.

We'll be talking more about the elections as the campaign gets under way, but clearly an election cycle makes a military strike against Iran in the next three months highly unlikely.