Efforts by lawmakers to dissolve the Knesset and call new elections on Wednesday were thwarted by a series of political schemes and plots to see the MKs go home in the evening, withdraw before midnight for a possible vote, and then go home again. voting was postponed to Thursday.
The final reading of the vote to dissolve the Knesset and call new elections was scheduled for 9 a.m. Thursday – an increasingly chaotic process after the Central Committees approved the initial legislation by a large majority last week.
Political debates over what legislation would be passed before the Knesset’s dissolution significantly slowed down the process of drafting a repeal bill in the Knesset House Committee on Wednesday.
The coalition’s Yisrael Beitenu and Labor parties were determined to pass a law to accelerate and simplify the development of the metro system for central Israel. Metro law – The Knesset must be adopted before it is released.
As the fighting dragged on until the evening, in exchange for opposition support, the Central Committee demanded that Amichai Chikli’s defector status be changed. Chikli, who was elected to the Knesset by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett Yamina, was overthrown by the party for opposing the coalition and preventing him from running in any of the existing Knesset elections.
The abolition of Chikli’s appointment as a “defector” could allow him and other renegade Yamina MKs Idit Silman and Nir Orbach to leave the party as a separate faction and join opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, while taking the allocated election funds with them. It is unknown at this time what he will do after leaving the post.
Yisrael Beitenu and the Labor Party tried to ratify the agreement, but Yamina and Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope party vehemently opposed it, and as a result, efforts to pass the repeal bill on Wednesday were thwarted.
“Amichai Chikli’s willingness to sacrifice the subway to change the lives of millions of Israelis and advance his personal political career is the culmination of pity and opportunity,” Yamina said in a statement. “Every Israeli who is in an unnecessary traffic jam will know that it is because of Amichai Chikli.”
Sa’ar split in Liku at the suggestion.
“Surrender to blackmail in the case of Chikli is a corruption deal that violates the law and the decision of the Knesset committee to vote on this issue,” Sa’ar wrote on Twitter. This “crying” will also be an incentive to stay away from parties one day after the election. The opposition was campaigning for more defectors, and unfortunately the coalition is now giving it a stamp of approval.
Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman addresses a faction meeting in the Knesset on June 27, 2022 (Olivier Fitoussi / Flash90)
As a result, Yisrael Beitenu said he would not withdraw his objections to the bill and threatened to prolong the annulment process on Thursday.
If the Knesset is not adjourned until midnight on Thursday, the long-running Israeli law on Jews living in the West Bank will expire, which could have serious legal consequences.
If the Knesset is released before midnight on Thursday, the settlement law will be automatically renewed for six months during the interim government.
Meanwhile, the Joint List of Opposition, composed mainly of Arab parties, has submitted a number of objections to the abolition bill, which aims to further delay the process, hoping that the Knesset will be released only after the expiration of the settlement law.
legislation Helping Israel to join the US Visa Success Program, meanwhile, appears to have died down despite the opposition’s refusal to allow the program to pass, despite pleas from US Ambassador Thomas Nides.
The modest handover ceremony of caretaker Prime Minister Jair Lapid, scheduled for Thursday morning from Bennett, will be postponed until Friday, assuming the Knesset successfully dissolves by midnight on Thursday.
Last week, Lapid and Bennett agreed on the inevitable dissolution of the Knesset after several uprisings by coalition Central Committees, undermining the government’s ability to legislate and govern effectively.
If the election is scheduled, it will be the fifth election for Israel in the last three and a half years and will cost about $ 2.4 billion.
The coalition is trying to hold elections on November 1, while the opposition is opting for October 25, when ultra-Orthodox Yeshiva students will still be on strike and thus more likely to vote.
The issue will be the final reading of the protest bill by voting.
