Likud to bring motion to dissolve Knesset before House next week
Faction formally decides to bring bill calling for dissolution of Knesset up for prelim vote next week. Likud calls on PM to 'end tenure in appropriate manner. We shouldn’t have to see a government resign disgracefully'
The Likud Party has openly announced Tuesday it would bring a bill calling for the disollusion of the current Knesset before the House within a week.
MK Silvan Shalom informed the faction that "on June 18 we will bring forth a motion calling for the dissolution of the Knesset in order to hurry the coming election in the most dignified way possible… The decision has been made. Olmert's government has reached the end of the road. All it cares about now is political survival."
Shalom went on to urge Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to end his government's tenure "in an appropriate manner. We shouldn’t have to see a government, a prime minister, resign disgracefully."
Opposition and Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated Shalom's sentiment, saying "the good of the State demands we seek new elections… Israel cannot allow the burning issues to be held hostage by political considerations.
"The Israeli public must be allowed to vote for a new government which can take care of things," he added.
Netanyahu informed his ministers that he tasked MKs Gideon Sa'ar and Shalom with "coming up with an election date which would be acceptable on all parties in the House".
MK Sa'ar, who also serves as chairman of the Likud faction, added that "every child in this country knows things cannot go on as they are. We will bring a motion of dissolution before the House and we call on all the parties to bring similar motions forward."
Meanwhile, Meretz announced Tuesday that should Kadima fail to set a date for its primaries during the month of June, it too would bring a motion of disollusion before the Knesset.
Attila Somfalvi contributed to this report
