Israeli Leaders Meet to Restore Stability to Government
Jerusalem24 – The leaders of the Israeli government coalition parties are scheduled to meet today, Sunday, in the framework of their regular weekly meeting, but it is the first since the recent political crisis of the government.
After the resignation of coalition leader, Idit Silman from the Yamina party, the government lost a majority in the Knesset, a matter that will be discussed during the meeting.
According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, in recent days Bennett spoke with all his partners, but no joint meeting was held. Today’s meeting will focus on the need to work on stabilizing the coalition and preventing the defection or resignation of any other Knesset member from the coalition parties before the majority problem is resolved.
While sources in the government coalition estimate that the opposition will find it difficult to find another defector or resigned, and that the coalition can be expanded by finding defectors from the opposition or obtaining the support of the Joint Arab List, there is great confidence on the part of Likud and other opposition parties that the government will fall soon.
Bennett preceded this by announcing his party MK Amichai Shikli as a dissident, a move aimed at preventing the opposition from taking advantage of the possibility of submitting his resignation, and thus the coalition would lose other Knesset seats.
For its part, the Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom reported that there has been pressure exerted by the Israeli government coalition, in recent days, on the Arab Joint List to prevent it from voting on any proposal in the Knesset in favor of dissolving the government.
According to the newspaper, political figures in the government coalition contacted senior members of the list and submitted proposals to support the Arab sector in terms of budgets, laws, and various benefits, in exchange for not voting on any proposal to dissolve the government.
According to the newspaper, the government coalition, during the contacts with the joint, considered that the current dissolution of the government means going to elections that will lead to the formation of a far-right government in which Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir will be present.
Ayman Odeh had told Hebrew Channel 12 in an interview last Friday that it was still too early to talk about dissolving the Knesset, and that he considered Benjamin Netanyahu, the Likud leader, as the most dangerous figure.