An early election in Israel was averted today after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reached a deal with Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon to put an end to a long-running political crisis over the upcoming launch over a new public broadcaster.

The two agreed that the new public media body – which Mr Netanyahu wanted shut down because he believed it would be biased against him – would not contain a news division.

The prime minister had been in favour of allowing the current Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) to continue operations, Mr Kahlon insisted on sticking to a new law under which IBA would be disbanded by the end of next month and the new corporation, Kan, would begin broadcasting on all channels on April 30.

Any changes to the public broadcast law would have needed the votes of Mr Kahlon’s Kulanu Party, and Likud ministers claimed that if he had not budged, Mr Netanyahu was prepared to go for early elections.

The leaders of Likud’s five coalition partners have all expressed their opposition to early elections. An adviser to Mr Kahlon said: “Bibi will have to back down. He hasn’t got the votes to disband the Knesset.”