Injured but alive, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s ruling coalition prevented a major challenge for the opposition on Monday when the Knesset reunited for its summer session, showing it still has muscles and trying to disprove predictions of its impending collapse.
The session opened with two no-confidence motion by the opposition, both of which did not receive the support needed to remove Bennett’s coalition from power.
A measure proposed by Likud attracted only 52 votes in favor, 61 against, while a separate proposal backed by Shas was also unsuccessful, with 52 votes in favor and 56 against.
A no-confidence vote would be inconvenient for the government, but with limited force, as the opposition lacks the 61 votes needed to move the government.
Although the opposition can express its lack of confidence in the government by a simple majority vote, it can overthrow the government within the current Knesset by pushing an additional bar called constructive no-confidence.
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Prior to the vote, the measures were considered a good chance to win a symbolic simple majority, thanks to rifts in the coalition, torn apart by desertions by right-wing lawmakers and the Islamist Raam party, which is freezing co-operation on Jerusalem tensions.
Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a no-confidence vote against the government in the Knesset, May 9, 2022 (Yonatan Sindel / Flash90)
Yamina MK’s Idit Silman, who threw the coalition into a mess when he resigned last month, was absent from the vote. Renegade Amichai Chickley, who was expelled from Yamina two weeks ago, was also absent. Earlier, Chickley expressed his intention to appeal his removal from Yamina – which has significant consequences for his personal political career – and may have abstained from voting to avoid voting against the coalition.
But unlike Chickley, Silman tried not to burn ties with Yamina and even attended Monday’s faction meeting.
Islamist Raam, who is still in the midst of a three-week freeze on the coalition, is similarly absent, denying the coalition four votes.
However, the six-member party with a majority of Arab joint lists actively helped to thwart the Likud-led measure, with its deputies either voting against it or failing to attend the plenary session. She also refrains from the Shas initiative. Channel 12 reported that two of the deputies from the Joint List weighed the vote with the coalition to reduce the preliminary reading of a bill aimed at dissolving the Knesset, which is due to be submitted on Wednesday.
To use a no-confidence vote to change the government, lawmakers must propose a government alternative to the current one, which must then win the support of at least 61 members of the Knesset, not just the simple majority present, that declarative voting requires . Likud’s proposal was believed to include a clause making opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu prime minister.
“Bibi is a red line,” said Joint List party spokesman Ayman Ode, using Netanyahu’s well-known nickname.
In the debate leading up to the vote, Netanyahu tried to unite the opposition, mocking Bennett for saying “Naftali is over”.
“The physics of politics cannot be deceived. It’s over, Naphtali. “Your government has ended its short and rotten career,” Netanyahu said from the podium.
“My friends and I will get Israel back on track,” the former prime minister added. “You guys ruined it – we’ll fix it. With God’s help, in a short time we will create a strong national government led by Likud, we will provide security, we will restore power, we will ensure the prosperity of all Israeli citizens.
Netanyahu also attacked the coalition partnership with Raam, claiming he was forcing the government to bow to the leaders of Hamas and the Shura Council, an advisory body that is part of Raam’s religious movement.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett (front) and Minister of Housing and Construction Zeev Elkin attend a discussion at the Knesset, 9 May 2022 (Yonatan Sindel / Flash90)
Giving a response to the government, Minister of Housing, Jerusalem and Heritage Zeev Elkin noted that Netanyahu had previously negotiated with Raam to join a potential coalition under his leadership before the agreement was torpedoed by religious Zionism leader Bezalel Smotric.
“I wondered if MK Netanyahu picked up the phone every morning and said, ‘Thank you very much, Bezalel, my friend, you saved me.’ “If Netanyahu is right in his description, this is exactly the government he tried to form only a year ago,” Elkin said.
In a debate ahead of the vote, Joint List MP Ahmad Tibi said his party plans to support the coalition’s anti-economic and crime-fighting legislation in Arab society, also scheduled for Monday’s vote. Coalition leaders decided to focus on uncontested economic and social issues in their first legislative day before.
“Our view of the coalition is negative, very negative lately,” Tibi said, alluding to the disappointment of the Joint List list of the ongoing conflict at the Temple Mount / Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in Jerusalem.
However, he said, issues such as the cost of living and the Negev are at the heart of the Joint List’s interests, along with Al-Aqsa.
The joint list has been hesitating in recent weeks whether the faction – itself made up of three separate parties – will co-operate with the weakening coalition to support specific legislation.
Ahmad Tibi, Member of the Joint List, during a Knesset debate on a no-confidence vote against the government, 9 May 2022 (Yonatan Sindel / Flash90)
The opposition could use a second tactic this week to put pressure on the government by presenting a law dispersing the Knesset on Wednesday. As a private bill, the law will have to pass a simple majority at its preliminary reading or be introduced by force for the next six months.
If a law disbanding the Knesset and imposing early elections is held and passed in advance on Wednesday, then it will be sent to a Knesset committee before preparing for three additional votes. Only if there is a third reading or a fourth vote with the support of at least 61 deputies will the Knesset be dissolved and new elections scheduled.
After taking the lead in both votes, Bennett and Lapid recorded a joint statement laughing at speculation that their coalition would break up on the first day of the summer session. “Everyone said, ‘You’ll see everything fall apart on Monday.'” Then Monday came and we won both votes, Lapid said.
“That’s right,” Bennett said. “We will continue with these victories and support this excellent government on behalf of the citizens of Israel.
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