Netanyahu: To avert an election, I accepted a compromise

In a televised news conference on Sunday night, Prime Minister Netanyahu said this is no time for an election. He therefore decided to accept the Hauser bill for postponing by 100 days the budget deadline that falls due on Aug. 24, and so avert an election that would have automatically been triggered by the absence of a budget on that date. He berated his Likud’s coalition partner Kahol Lavan for constantly sniping at him and setting up “a government within a government” instead of joining hands for the great challenges facing the nation. Netanyahu declared that the new era ushered in for the Middle East by the UAE-Israel deal with more such deals on the way is more important than the coronavirus era. Answering reporters’ questions, the prime minister denied he intended determining the appointments of the police commissioner or state attorney, as the Kahol Lavan Justice Minister Moshe Nissenkorn has alleged.