Israel 's Netanyahu calls early election

Government crumbles as prime minister fires two ministers
and calls for new poll two years ahead of schedule.
Israel' s prime minister has sacked two senior
cabinet ministers from his divided government and said he
will call early elections .
Benjamin Netanyahu ' s office said on Tuesday he had
ordered the dismissals of Finance Minister Yair Lapid and
Justice Minister Tzipi Livni .
"I will not tolerate any opposition in my government, " a
statement from Netanyahu' s office quoted him as saying .
It said he would call for dissolving the parliament as soon as
possible and seek a "clear mandate " from the public to lead
the nation .
The current government took office in early 2013 and has
been riven by divisions .
The coalition government has been divided over key issues in
recent weeks , and Lapid and Livni have emerged as fierce
critics of the prime minister .
"The firing of ministers is an act of cowardice and loss of
control , '' Lapid said after his dismissal .
"We are sad to see that the prime minister has chosen to act
without consideration for the national interest and to
drag Israel to unnecessary elections. ''
Jewish state bill
Addressing a news conference shortly after dismissing the
ministers, Netanyahu said he would act to table a bill to
dissolve the current parliament .
He said it is impossible to lead the country with a
government that is not functioning properly, an apparent
reference to the two ministers who have criticised his
policies.
Netanyahu' s coalition , dominated by the right - wing, is split
on a range of issues, including the 2015 budget, high living
costs, policy towards the Palestinians and a Jewish nation -
state bill .
Livni had been the most outspoken opponent to the Jewish
state bill, which has been widely criticised internationally and
domestically as discriminating against Israeli-Palestinian
citizens.
If early elections are held , Israeli media say the most likely
date is March .
Two television polls on Tuesday said Netanyahu' s rightist
Likud party would emerge once again as the largest group in
parliament if elections were held today , almost certainly
ensuring him a fourth term as prime minister .
"Even though his popularity has gone down over the 50 -
days Gaza war he still the favourite to win an election, " Al
Jazeera ' s Andrew Simmons , reporting from Jerusalem ,
said .
"What we are seeing now is him asserting himself and using
the term ' opposition within the cabinet ' . He says a day does
not go by without his policies being challenged by his fellow
coalition members . "
The government waged a fierce war against fighters in the
Gaza Strip over the summer. Negotiations to reach peace
with the Palestinians ended in failure last spring.
In the occupied West Bank , Palestinian Foreign Minister
Riad Malki said opinion polls indicate the next Israeli
government may be "more right -wing and extreme. '' He
said this could bolster international support for
the Palestinian cause .
In Brussels, US Secretary of State John Kerry declined
to comment on the "internal politics " of Israel.
"But obviously , we hope that whatever government is
formed - or whether there are elections , that those
elections will produce - the possibility of a government that
can negotiate and move toward resolving the differences
between Israelis and Palestinians, " he said .