Israel’s ruling Likud party submitted a bill on Wednesday to dissolve the Knesset and call for elections. This follows a former member party of the coalition announcing its loss of faith in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday and urging the opposition to start elections as soon as possible.

• The 120-seat legislature is currently split 60-60 between the government coalition and opposition parties. The opposition needed only one defection from Netanyahu’s group to call early elections, so it appears the coalition is preempting them to at least determine the timing of the elections, even though it might lose power.
• Israel’s last elections were in 2022; the next elections were scheduled for this October.
• The formal Knesset vote on the dissolution is expected next week.

Israel’s opposition is getting more organized ahead of the elections. Two former prime ministers, Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, have merged their political parties and invited other opposition figures to form a united front. Ongoing political machinations and voter polls suggest they may well beat Netanyahu and Likud.

• Except for a brief period between 2021 and 2022, Netanyahu has been prime minister since 2009, following a brief stint from 1996 to 1999. He is 76 years old.
• Even if many Israelis support what Netanyahu has done for the country, his decade and a half at the helm might be giving many of his supporters fatigue and hope that another leader can solve Israel’s problems.

The Bible prophesies in passages like Hosea 5:13 and Zechariah 14:1-2 that the State of Israel will be afflicted by severe curses. (Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry’s free booklet Jerusalem in Prophecy explains this in detail.)

Israel has been hit by heavy curses such as the October 7 terror attack. But Prime Minister Netanyahu and his leadership have done much to keep Israel relatively strong. His leaving office will likely accelerate Israel’s downfall.