Israel may hold early elections

Political experts say Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu may hold early elections to capitalize on his popularity. Israel's current coalition government is one of the most stable government the country has seen in decades, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday. Because of this, some believe Netanyahu may seek to hold elections for prime minister as early as this summer, before the United States presidential election in November, the report said. President Barack Obama has scaled back pressure on Israel to reach an agreement about borders with Palestine, but if Obama is re-elected, the pressure could be back on, one analyst told the Times. A November victory for Obama would renew "his mandate to throw his weight around in the peace process and pressure Netanyahu and Israel to take initiatives or make concessions," said Ofer Kenig, an expert on party politics at the Israel Democracy Institute. "Netanyahu may prefer to have his election behind him when this starts happening." Netanyahu's overall approval rating currently hovers around 50 percent and an opinion poll shows his conservative Likud party would likely take the highest number of Knesset seats if elections were held now. "Netanyahu couldn't hope for a better situation," said political scientist Menachem Hofnung at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The prime minister has already called for his party to hold primaries to select leaders whose names would be on the next election ballot, as has its main rival, the centrist Kadima party. "Once he did that, we all had to follow," said Kadima lawmaker Meir Sheetrit. Sheetrit added that although Netanyahu, who has held office since 2009, has a high approval rating, because of the nature of Israeli politics, an early election may not be in his best interests. "Every prime minister who makes early elections almost always loses," Sheetrit said. "The political situation in Israel is so dynamic. Things can turn upside down between the time you call an election and the time you vote."