‘We will win!’ Netanyahu vows better result in snap elections after historic coalition failure

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to win a snap election in September after he failed to meet the deadline to form a coalition government and the parliament, for the first time in history, voted to dissolve itself.

“We will run a sharp, clear election campaign which will bring us victory. We will win, we will win and the public will win,” Netanyahu told reporters in a brief statement after parliament voted to dissolve itself. The vote of 74 to 45 in favor of dismantling the Knesset will send the country into yet another election on September 17.

After more than a month of futile attempts to form a coalition government following last month's election victory, Netanyahu made a last-ditch effort to strike a deal between ex-defense minister Avigdor Lieberman and ultra-Orthodox parties on military draft exemptions. But that attempt has failed, with Lieberman blaming Netanyahu for dragging the country into another election because of the Likud’s party's refusal to vote on a bill to draft the ultra-Orthodox Jews into mandatory military service.

Netanyahu hit back at his former commander, claiming that Lieberman misled his voters just to drag Israel into a new election “just because he wants a few more votes, which he won’t get.” The PM also accused Lieberman of being a man of the left who “brings down right-wing governments.”

Meanwhile the leader of the opposition, Benny Gantz, who previously argued that his Blue and White party should be given the chance to form a coalition if Netanyahu fails, slammed the Prime Minister as well.

“Bibi proved again – not Israel before all. Bibi over everything,” he said on Twitter. “Bibi was a prisoner of the legal fortress and trying to avoid prison. The people will have to pay for Bibi’s failure.”

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