Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition collapsed on Monday, with the announcement it was dissolving parliament and calling early elections in April.
Following a meeting of the heads of coalition parties, a statement announced they had “unanimously agreed to dissolve the Knesset [parliament] and go to a new election at the beginning of April”.
Mr Netanyahu’s coalition fell apart over a proposed bill ordering military conscription for ultra-orthodox Jews, just weeks after it appeared on the brink of collapse over a ceasefire deal with the militant group Hamas in Gaza.
Now in his fourth term as prime minister, he will go to the polls facing the possibility of being charged with bribery and corruption in three separate cases. The attorney general has not yet decided whether to act on police recommendations that he be indicted.
Mr Netanyahu has been governing with a single-seat majority in the 120-member parliament since mid November, when Avigdor Lieberman resigned as defence minister and withdrew his Yisrael Beitenu party from the ruling coalition because of what he said was the government's weak response to rocket attacks from Gaza. The Jewish Home party leader Naftali Bennett appeared set to follow suit but then said he would give Mr Netanyahu another chance.
But on Monday, after failing to garner enough votes to pass court-ordered legislation to draft ultra-Orthodox Jews into the military, Mr Netanyahu’s Likud party said “national and budgetary responsibilities” compelled the calling of early elections.
Mr Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox coalition partners have resisted conscription and demanded the weakening of the draft bill, while on Wednesday the leader of the opposition Yesh Atid party withdrew support, calling the coalition’s hoped-for compromise a payoff to draft dodgers.
Polls suggest Mr Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party is likely to remain the largest in Israel, while he remains the preferred choice for prime minister, far ahead of other contenders. Another victory for Mr Netanyahu would assure him a place in history as Israel’s longest-serving leader.
Although elections were not due till November next year, holding them early is likely to be favourable to the incumbent prime minister, according to analysts.
"Netanyahu will enter those elections as a prime minister, minister of defence and minister of foreign affairs," Elizabeth Tsurkov, a research fellow at the Israeli think tank Forum for Regional Thinking told The National. "The minister of defence role allows Netanyahu to do photo-ops with IDF [Israeli Defence Force] soldiers and commanders and exploit the popularity of the IDF for his campaign."
Holding elections while the possibility of criminal charges hang over Mr Netanyahu will allow him to claim the Israeli public voted for him with full knowledge of the allegations, Ms Tsurkov said. “And hence, deposing him from the prime minister’s position would be undemocratic.”
The calling of early elections could delay the advancement of any US peace plan however. Israeli media reported last month that Mr Netanyahu wanted to delay the Trump administration’s much vaunted Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, fearing its release before the elections could hurt his election chances. “I suspect it won't be unveiled until after the elections, but it's hard to be certain with this unpredictable administration,” Ms Tsurkov said.
Though the specifics of the peace plan have not been publicised, and Palestinian officials have outright rejected it in advance, Donald Trump has promised a "deal of the century" to resolve the conflict. With Mr Netanyahu remaining one of Mr Trump's staunchest international allies, the US administration will look to follow developments closely.
Addressing reporters on Monday, Mr Netanyahu looked confident of making history next year, saying he hoped to form a similar right-wing coalition. “The current coalition is, in my eyes, the core of the next coalition," he said.
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Read more:
Palestinians can expect another year of Trump betrayal in 2019
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Israeli police recommend indicting Netanyahu on bribery charges
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VEZEETA PROFILE
Date started: 2012
Founder: Amir Barsoum
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: HealthTech / MedTech
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Funding: $22.6 million (as of September 2018)
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Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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A timeline of the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language
- 2018: Formal work begins
- November 2021: First 17 volumes launched
- November 2022: Additional 19 volumes released
- October 2023: Another 31 volumes released
- November 2024: All 127 volumes completed
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At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
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The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
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8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
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Twenty20 squad: Babar Azam (captain), Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Sohail, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Imam-ul-Haq, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Irfan, Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper), Musa Khan, Shadab Khan, Usman Qadir, Wahab Riaz
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
