By law, the government must pass a budget no later than Sunday, November 14

Time will be suspended this week in the Knesset when round-the-clock debate on the 2022–23 budget takes place, with a final vote tentatively scheduled for Thursday. By law, the government must pass a budget no later than Sunday, November 14. Failure to do so means the Knesset will automatically be disbanded and we will head to new elections.

The opposition will try to muster a filibuster and may succeed in keeping MKs in the Knesset for a couple of all-nighters, but no Israeli government has ever fallen due to budget failure, and it’s unlikely to happen this time either, even though the government is racked with dissension and petty feuds.

Ask the heads of most yeshivos and chareidi institutions who are struggling to survive with funding levels pegged to the last budget a government passed in 2018, and they will assure you it’s better for the budget to pass, and if the government falls, let it fall over another issue.

At press time, that’s the most likely scenario, and the Bennett-Lapid government will survive, for the time being. The bigger question is if this government will still be around in its present composition when the time comes to turn the clocks forward at the end of March 2022.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 884)