Overview
- The Knesset voted in a preliminary reading Wednesday to advance a coalition-sponsored bill to dissolve the 25th Knesset, with 110 of 120 deputies backing the text.
- The draft must go to committee and clear two more Knesset readings before final adoption and it requires elections no fewer than 90 days after that final vote, allowing ballots as early as late August.
- The dissolution push was led by the Likud to manage internal strain caused by ultra-Orthodox demands for military exemptions for yeshiva students, and those parties have signaled support for a rival opposition-led dissolution plan.
- Opposition leaders Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett have formed the BeYahad alliance to challenge Netanyahu, and public polls show Likud with a narrow lead but no clear path for either bloc to form a majority.
- Key next steps to watch are the committee edits and the competing ultra-Orthodox bill, which could change the timetable, and the campaign’s likely focus on Netanyahu’s legal troubles, coalition arithmetic, and security developments that could alter scheduling.