A festering government crisis over passage of a national budget could push Israel into its fourth election since mid-2019, further straining an economy hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Crunch time is approaching: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bickering coalition, patched together in May, has by law until Dec. 23 to pass the 2020 budget, a move held up by political stalemate and successive national ballots. Failure to do so by the deadline would automatically trigger an election that both right-wing Likud leader Netanyahu and his main governing partner, centrist Blue and White party chief Benny Gantz, insist they do not want.