Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Tuesday his decision to disperse the Knesset ( parliament) and go to early elections, citing the failure of his coalition partners to agree on an austerity budget as a main reason behind the move.

Local analysts, however, dispute Netanyahu's argument, saying his real intention is to take advantage of his present high popularity and the opposition's disarray to win another term with a stronger mandate.

"Netanyahu is taking a safe gamble that the elections at least aren't going to put him in a worse position than he is now," Dr. Guy Ben-Porat, of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, told Xinhua on Wednesday.

Polls are showing Netanyahu's Likud party retaining its 28 mandates and possibly gaining up to another three, in the 120-seat unicameral legislature, he said.

"But there is a change of a reshuffle that he could build a new coalition, mainly with new members, that would be more cooperative on some of the issues that he is struggling with at the moment," Ben-Porat added.

While, Netanyahu believes the elections are needed to continue what he contends is his government's responsible and stable rule, it has been suggested in Israeli media that he could have easily passed the budget, and that the real reason was that he did not want to give former prime minister Ehud Olmert time to organize a new party and challenge him.

One coalition partner that may very well not secure his reelection is Defense Minister Ehud Barak, of the Independence party.

Barak started his political career as a member of the center- left Labor party. However, when the Labor party decided to leave the government in January 2011 over disappointments with Netanyahu 's perceived lack of efforts to restart peace talks with the Palestinians, Barak and four other members formed the Independence party, and remain in the government.

The newly-formed party does, however, lack its own voter base and it is highly likely that it will not secure enough votes to cross the electoral threshold.

Should Netanyahu attempt to replace the void left by the Independence party in his next government in order to maintain the balance between right-wing and center-left parties in the current one, an option might be the fledgling center-left Yesh Atid ( Future) party established by former newsman Yair Lapid.

Ben-Porat said that Lapid is likely to join the coalition if Netanyahu offers him the right returns, "such as a ministry post and a minor change in policy or some influence on issues which they would consider to be important."

Prof. Fania Oz-Salzberger, of the University of Haifa, said very few governments in Israeli history have held together through their full four-year term.

"Back in May there was already talks of going to elections, so it has been hanging in the air, and the inability to pass the budget had reawakened the idea of early elections," Oz-Salzberger said.

The main issue at the heart of budget discussions in recent weeks is how to squeeze between NIS 13 and 15 billion (3.23-3.73 billion U.S. dollars) worth of cuts in government ministries.

The suggested cuts are part of Netanyahu and Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz's austerity plan, set to fight Israel's slowing economy and low tax revenues, in hopes of reaching a three-percent of the GDP deficit target.

The cuts will slash funding for education and infrastructure, and are expected to stir up a significant public opposition. They are also vehemently opposed by ultra-orthodox parties as many of their supporters spend their days studying religious texts and are supported by government allowances.

Despite the focus on the budget, however, Oz-Salzbereger said " Israeli elections had never been decided by economic issues; it's going to be decided at the end of the day by the political issues. "

One possible opponent is Olmert, who served as prime minister between 2006 and 2008, and was convicted in July on breach of public trust charges. Haim Ramon, who once belonged to the Kadima party together with Olmert, told Army radio on Wednesday that Olmert is mulling a comeback.

There is also speculation that Aryeh Deri, former leader of the Sephardic Shas party, is also considering a return to politics.

In 2002, Deri was convicted of taking bribes, but still remains very popular among Shas supporters. If he were to form a new party and run in the elections, he might be able to pull some of Shas' mandates, which would serve to further fragment the coalition government.