number of cash handouts to residents here in hong kong to help during this pandemic the foreign domestic workers have missed out that's despite being a minimum wage of around $600.00 a month free toted 19 tests are available for workers who've lost their jobs but the government rejected a plea for a pirate. the 3 months oust class among the dumb stick work as saw a problem that and many of them out of trying to stop them south that i had to squish that a small money so that that's just that all this bad offset of an employer as well as helping the family the pandemic has exposed the haas realities of being a migrant worker in asia to travel restrictions it could be months before they can go home and be reunited with their family it's. al-jazeera home. again the headlines on al-jazeera after 8 months of tense talks and just 7 days

before the deadline the european union and u.k. have clinched a trade deal the agreement for a 0 tariff and 0 quota relationship covers everything from energy to what became the crucial issue of fisheries. protection for a level playing field on regulation while the u.k. avoided a future role for the european court of justice 3 countries in latin america are now in the early stages of mass vaccination programs and intensive care nurse receive the 1st approved dose in mexico argentina will start administering russia's sputnik vaccine from monday tens of thousands of pfizer and bio untag vaccines have also arrived at hospitals in chile syrian state television says the country's air defenses have shot down several missiles launched by is really war planes in the northwest the sun a news agency says the airstrikes were carried out in the musty off area there were also reports of blasts in the coastal city of targets. iran's top general has dismissed claims his country was behind a recent attack on the u.s.

embassy in baghdad president donald trump has blamed iran for sunday's rocket attack and threatened a military response if quote one american is killed the u.n. security council has approved a temporary deployment of more troops to the central african republic ahead of sunday's presidential elections earlier women marched to the whole headquarters of the un peacekeeping mission demanding a peaceful vote tensions have flared ahead of the polls with rebels capturing a large town this week at least 20 people died when a boat carrying migrants sank off the coast of to those on board who were thought to be trying to reach the italian island of lampedusa. more news at the top of the hour we'll have a check of the headlines for now it's inside story. it

was loose from the beginning now the ruling coalition in israel has collapsed paving the way for a 4th election in just 2 years how much of a challenge is it to benjamin netanyahu and this time with the vote change the political landscape this is inside story. hello welcome to the program. if fractious coalition government beset by infighting but now israel's rare unity cabinet has collapsed creating political uncertainty

a 4th election in just 2 years expected to be held in a few months the parliament was forced to dissolve after failing to pass the annual budget that's after benny gantz couldn't convince prime minister benjamin netanyahu to endorse his spending plans the 2 leaders will now part ways after being bound to a power sharing deal for months that campaigns have led to inconclusive election results previously and being in months long political deadlock the speaker of the knesset has called on all parties to refrain from fueling tangents ahead of the vote. unfortunately we were unable to find enough common ground to prevent another round of elections and enable the 23rd knesset and its members to exercise the mandate given to us we are all going to face a difficult on the campaign and i call on each and every one of us and each and every israeli citizen to refrain from exacerbating tensions. blue and white party

leader benny gantz has accused netanya hold seeking a snap election to avoid a corruption trial netanyahu denies the allegations and blames gunt for the political crisis and we had against elections that wrong decision by the un by party what if an election is forced upon us i promise you that we've event the power sharing deal came after neither side was able to form a majority coalition in 3 inconclusive votes under their 3 year agreement netanyahu served as prime minister for 18 months with guns taken over in november recent polls show support for guns blue and white party has blah mattered and netanyahu has white wing likud could win big netanyahu has faced weekly protest against his rule mainly over the handling of the coronavirus analysts say that b.m. could face a strong challenge from gideon starr who left likud to set up his own new hope

party. there's been mixed reactions from some israeli people on the snap election. i think the early election is very bad for israel and in general it's a very frustrating situation that we got ourselves into. a political stand still for the past few years is very very bad in general and our leadership is doing what it's supposed to do which is take care of israeli citizens. the situation is very very very sad well naturally a 4th election in less than 2 years is what the economy needs right now isn't what the country needs and what the people need in the middle of the pandemic it's not over yet we have started with the vaccines before the election. isn't good for anybody i think i'm happy. because i was afraid we will never have an election again. we. will take over

still we have 3 months. with. the prime minister we don't do any tricks. let's bring in our guests in. a political analyst and contributor to harvest newspaper you see a senior fellow at chatham house he joins us from london in west jerusalem with michel barack. welcome to all of you. are we talking here about a political crisis in is the way or or is it just a tactical move by the 2 key leaders here to gain more political advantage in the future. i would say that it's more

complicated than just political i think that you have here a democracy struggling for its soul and values it's like the author david grossman said it's a struggle is over recur bruce's spoilage and over elice but is this recovery i would say it's also tolerance versus bigotry if you just remove neutrally out from the equation and you say it's right to get a still left and nittany out decides to step down and too. was his trial and prove that his innocence you can form a government over not there are more than 707275 members of the

coward's incumbent knesset that would vote for get on sour or bennett or any other candidate you see 5 members of knesset have defected in the last week from the likud they criticised the then house called up but they didn't say a word of criticism about his ideology even not about his conduct in regard to the coronavirus so. it's not. just about an attorney out but what he represents ok and. i believe that in the next elections there will be a majority sure who then will support the israeli that get us out is ready democracy they will not allow the prime minister who is indicted. to

decide who is going to be the this prosecutor will talk is actually what netanyahu wanted and i think under this was one too many demands for very guns and this 'd is what leads us to the force elections in 2 years we'll talk later about some aspects of the political saga in israel but for the time being yossi when you look at the 1st layer of the whole story it's a disagreement about the budget that triggered the collapse of the of the of the of the unity government is it only about the budget or there's a 2nd layer to this story. to touch the touch of your photo shoot it is is that just you know it's not it's not do it isn't for that i think there is only political system entering into a very dangerous decline the fact that really convening in for the 4th election in

4 years there is you're almost anything that you need to know embarked the neck of functioning of these are literally the fanciest and the constant flow of hopefuls politician from one party to another of the speeds the reliance is only to day and not the party it splits and no and someone from the initiative is going to outline the separates party this is something that happens full was happening for the long time the main issue of course removing the timing out from the equation can be a thirst there it towards healing the easily political system because it really is behavior is so toxic everything is so poisonous to the political system especially the corruption there is as you mentioned earlier but it has to go way beyond it because the reality is not only the quote political system is the society's divided and when you look at the polls you see that yes you might be the

coalition but it's also contain we've conflicting conflicting daves and each one be a government again that can deal with a huge challenge just spacing ok michelle nanny and alice are saying that basically netanyahu was smart enough to decide it's about time to trigger the loophole in the agreement that was initially struck between both political leaders as paving the way for him to bring down the government hoping that next time he will win and bennett guns will loose however what if this backfires. well i think you know you never go to elections because you don't know what's going to be in 3 months from now so i mean i think at the end of the day the problem was always that there was an exit clause for this agreement between guidance and it's and you know the rotation and they were to realize it costs the budget for 2020 and

the budget for 2021 so you know he could have kept the government going it's a total embarrassment and it's irresponsible of the 10 you know and of the other people in the government that they have not passed the budget for 2020 meaning the budget aaron israel is is you know running on empty if you will because we had elections last year also in 2090 so you know it's been a hold over of budgets that haven't really been planned properly so this is this could be a very big mistake i mean you know i think it's good to sum it up you know right now you're seeing a real mutiny from the likud meaning it's not just you don't sorry to challenge him it's another senior ministers of alkan who left yesterday as other members of knesset and i'm not convinced we've seen the end of it meaning people will only drink the cyanide kool-aid 3 times and then they're not going to drink the kool-aid anymore meaning you know i mean he had 3 chances to do it he went in with guns and good faith guns went in with good faith i mean god's committed political suicide by

going into this government because he broke up his agreement with yesterday down with the loan he went in and he said this is what israel needs coronavirus budget all these things and he knew that if you went in he would have real difficulty ever running again he thought he would be prime minister but if he didn't you would if his career would be over when he took that chance we'll talk more about it but a means for for ben accounts but for the time being. until the last minute there were both guns and netanyahu hoping that there would be an extension of the deadline however. lawmakers from. guns party and from netanyahu as party decided no there will be no extension what do you read into this defections from lawmakers from both parties. say that they lost. the last bit of face. credit

that the government gave that. i think that. guns is a blue and white party there were a few people but enough people who said enough is enough we're not going to be you 1000000 the terms that netanyahu put front to them that he will have a veto over the in point many of the next attorney general and. about the. veto that his representatives will have in the committee that appoints the supreme court and probably that on the house trial will reach the supreme court so i think that this was one too many demands that they couldn't swallow and they were running on being not with any out on as was

mentioned before newton had guns promised his constituency that he will not sit with this any hour in the same government around the same table so we have and i think that he was actually falling on his sward because he knew that this is the end of his career but the other hand i think that it gives hope for the. contenders for the good old south. lieberman and those who say the record is ok anyhow is not a right so if a 30 out will turn out to be a nuisance from the record there is no reason why guns why story why they get us out we'll go back to the likud and we lead them ok. to form that he government you

see the general sentiment among all the opponents of the critics of netanyahu this is someone who is manipulating the political establishment to advance his own political agenda and to question himself i guess any ramifications of the prosecution which is underway if that's the case how can someone pull the strings and manipulate the whole political system in israel isn't this an indication of there's something wrong with or with establishment itself completely i think anyone that was part of or has been out of it is complicit and we mentioned many guns. could i think in the history of the state of someone's soul going to so many it was probably the only one to believe that. you know entered into this agreement in groups and because everyone there's still a big metal you know it's not going to abide by the sick room because it doesn't abide by any name and so we created this is it's on its own supporters group of

supporters that go before america talks to the base and the base to be supporting and probably supporting the next election but yes in the sense you so much so many close also recently or one day one group some of the groups he does that he does that's the lifo but when you look at what happens in this and he this story she's really democracy in don't you know that someone it was indicted on such a serious allegation of co-option still they're not suspended himself should that were evidently seen hold with them found out there on the generals on the political system all the way to this court must be together since complicit in all right michel. how do you see things on events moving forward particularly to been against is it safe to say that this is the beginning of the end for his political career. well it may also be the beginning of the end of an it's and yes career i

mean we've been saying this every election you know so it's going to look we're still 3 months out from the election so we don't know what crisis is going to be in 8 days from now because that's going to really influence people's votes you know ted you know i was going on all these peace agreements that he signed which is a fantastic you know it seems that we actually have piece of or normalization agreements with countries we never had we have travel agreements that's fantastic netanyahu was a police by the time 90 days by the time march comes around most israelis or all the israelis want will already have the pfizer arm of their new vaccine and that's going to be a huge achievement also i mean i think he's mismanaged this pretty much after the 1st wave he did ok but after that this is been totally mismanaged he hasn't shown really or ship on any fronts and you know all's well that ends well as long as people have the vaccine there and you know we're going to be ahead of other countries so that's with netanyahu and he may get he has

a real mutiny in the in the party and he may not he may not survive it as far as guns he'll be lucky to have a small party meaning there are a number of small parties now whether it's sars party it's yeah i mean it's yes it's still a piece party there may be you know an effort to combine forces again either in an actual party or separate parties running together so again you never want to write the obituary of someone in really politics until it's already over and we don't know that it's over ok doesn't go back to who you know 3 elections ago gotz may tremendous tremendous success all right he came out of nowhere and was leading either the largest party or the 2nd largest party in israel 3 elections in a row general really shimon gentlemen we have many angles to cover. if. he's widely seen as the man who outsmart to bennigan's don't you see gideon saab as the man who could potentially and if anyone has political korea. yeah

i think that it does and to mention his f. king who was a wonderful attorney i was closest ally. if they can convince these ready the public that what an attorney how can do they can do better or they can do the same ideologically of course you cannot put a pin in between them there is no difference for people who will support greater israel and an exception they are the perfect candidates because it anyhow didn't deliver the and how we'll try to challenge them on the diplomatic arena he will try to take advantage on the last stream east timor far president trumps.

presidency and. he will of course it was he ran again and you say do we really support you don't sour or bet they will be able to stop president biden from going back to the iran deal i am the only one who can go to washington and can stand in front of both parties. and convince them to stop your mind ok for the time being on a bigger till you're see for the time being that it's these right of voters who will decide who takes over gideon saw the man who is widely seen as a rising star in politics now the man who could determine the future of the state of israel has been saying that he won't join any government and netanyahu what will be his options do you see him easily wishing out to the left and to the santa of

course there's the cornice not to enjoy. in a government with not only our sons to be told no because they come bearing many guns and joined in this fight is mitchell so no you know it is close to completely disappearing from on the political map i actually believe that you can stop because it's also best. between it and your own good and so i think if means business in the sense it's interesting because unless there is a major development on the center left muslim the battle is going to take place in the right the center light and the heart and at the end of the day will be a possibility to fall probably if a light swing coalition we felt that now and i think we can see a say no you're not a definite and i'll go back to a possible scenario but then you know well because i think one of the question to ask was there is this fatigue among israeli electorate out there going to let them

'd fall in the past experience since the election in the sense that you know that you just start an opening for other possibilities the needs 1st and foremost to see the kind of nathaniel in follow over 'd and let other parties and other leadership to take order and this i think we look at this to ask you know ross those will ask us if this is the case and this is what i'm get what i'm going to ask michel if you look at the political landscape in israel you have the announcement the collapse of the government parliament dissolved you have not been it's jumping and you have they've allocated the man who has been one of the most loyal people to netanyahu saying that it's about time for these valleys to turn the chapter of benjamin netanyahu you have coronavirus and you have an economy which has been battered beyond recognition commission how do you see the mood of these rally people who will be convinced to go in march and vote for a new government and

a new prime minister are they optimistic about a new start in israel. i mean i think there is you know i mean i get the country is divided as a people that support until now and you know a ready over the past few weeks 50000 israelis have been to dubai now mill coronavirus somehow the government allowed travel to dubai $50000.00 israelis went there so they're feeling this new freedom they're feeling they're seeing a new middle east which is a really exciting time for everyone so some of them will focus on that and say you know what we can't imagine that israel without its and yeah so a lot of people don't want to move on and take it it's like maybe being in a bad marriage it's better to be in a marriage that's not so happy rather than go out and find someone new and get the unexpected because you know your partner's habits they know your habits and it's the best so you know there are israelis if you like that there is now a real you know grassroots movement which is coming together

a lot of different people people that are protesting the indictment people that say he's mishandled the coronavirus people that say he's taking advantage of the court system so those people are getting together i think in the tally but it needs to turn around and say i'm running for prime minister which he said but i will not under any circumstances sit with it and you know once he says that it's a game changer and it's pretty much over for it and yeah ok the other thing i would like to say is the i don't agree that the state of democracy is so bad at israel the system is not bad it's the people that are in it meaning at any time $61.00 members of knesset could get together and elect another member of knesset to be prime minister had people come out of the likud and say we really need to band together just form a government fix the coronavirus they could have done it the system is there and also it's not a president it's a prime minister 1st among equals and cabinets to run this country you have to have a cabinet ministers and everything is a majority vote in the cabinet so it doesn't really matter who the candidates who

gets it as long as they work together but together good cabinet the future is ok german is all going to be quite interesting times for israel. we'll have to see whether benjamin it will be able once again to convince these rallies to give him another chance to rule the country for the time being we are running out of time thank you very much indeed. michel but i appreciate your insight thank you for watching you can see the program again and it's on by visiting our website dot com for further discussion go to our facebook page with us facebook dot com for was last a.j. incised body can also join the conversation on twitter. and the entire team here in doha.

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this is al jazeera i'm dating obligato with a check on your world headlines after 8 months of tense talks and just 7 days before the deadline the european union and u.k. have clinched a trade deal the agreement for a 0 tariff and 0 quota relationship covers everything from energy to what became the crucial issue of fisheries. protection for a level playing field on regulation while the u.k. avoided a future role for the european court of justice i think this deal means a new stability in you and a certainty in what is sometimes being a for.