Netanyahu Fires Two Senior Ministers

JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday fired two senior ministers and called for new elections.

Netanyahu dismissed Finance Minister Yair Lapid and Justice Minister Tsipi Livni and said that they had consistently opposed him and his policies from within the governing coalition.

“With the current government,” he said, “it is impossible to run the country.”

Netanyahu said the pair had met with opposition leaders in an attempt at a political “putsch” that would have mustered enough votes to oust him as prime minister.

The Netanyahu government will remain in place until the elections, sometime next spring. Absent will be the two dismissed ministers plus four others from Lapid’s party who resigned in protest. Livni was the only minister from her party.

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