Netanyahu’s chief whip submits legislation to preempt opposition bill that would bring vote forward from Oct. 27 deadline, as Haredi mutiny throws government’s legislative plans into disarray
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition on Wednesday submitted a bill to dissolve the Knesset and trigger elections, as the government competed with the opposition to control the process of disbanding parliament and determining when voters will go to the ballot box. The bill did not specify an election date
The maneuvering came a day after the ultra-Orthodox Degel HaTorah faction announced that it would push to dissolve the Knesset and advance the next general election over the coalition’s failure to pass a draft exemption law for yeshiva students.
If lawmakers vote to dissolve the Knesset, elections must be held within five months of that vote passing, which would mean mid- to late-October at latest. The Haredi parties reportedly favor an election date in early September. Elections must in any case be held by October 27.
Opposition parties submitted dissolution bills on Tuesday and urged Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana to hold a preliminary vote as early as Wednesday, in an effort to capitalize on Degel HaTorah’s announcement.
Ohana, who alone has the authority to accelerate the process, declined to do so, an opposition source familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel on Wednesday.
Instead, in an effort to control both the legislative process and the timing of the elections, Coalition Whip Ofir Katz on Wednesday submitted legislation calling for new elections to be held no less than three months from the bill’s approval and providing for the date of the election to be determined by the Knesset House Committee.
The bill was cosponsored by lawmakers from the United Torah Judaism (which includes the Degel HaTorah faction that sparked this week’s turmoil), Shas, New Hope, Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit parties. The House Committee is chaired by the Likud’s Katz.
Under Knesset rules, bills must be submitted on Mondays to be placed on the plenum agenda that same week. Since the dissolution bills from both the coalition and opposition were submitted after this week’s deadline, the earliest a preliminary vote could take place is Monday, though Ohana will likely delay the vote until Wednesday next week, when lawmakers typically vote on bills in their preliminary readings.
After clearing its preliminary reading, the bill will still need to undergo committee deliberations and clear three more Knesset readings before becoming law.
Passing the preliminary reading alone may still complicate the coalition’s legislative agenda for the remainder of the Knesset term, particularly on election-related initiatives such as lowering the voting age or raising the electoral threshold, both measures the coalition has expressed interest in advancing.
The speed of the process will largely depend on how much pressure the ultra-Orthodox parties place on Netanyahu and his coalition.
“They could tell Netanyahu that if he doesn’t advance the bill, they’ll start voting with the opposition, passing opposition legislation and embarrassing the government until it moves forward,” the source said.
The coalition already removed all its bills from the Knesset plenum’s agenda on Wednesday due to concerns that it did not have a majority following Degel HaTorah’s announcement.
According to the Ynet news site, that move also reflected uncertainty within the coalition over how fellow ultra-Orthodox party Shas would vote, as it had yet to publicly respond to Degel HaTorah’s declaration.
Degel HaTorah is one of two factions, alongside the Hasidic Agudat Yisrael, which comprise the seven-MK United Torah Judaism party.
Despite reports of a deepening crisis between Netanyahu and the ultra-Orthodox parties, it remains unclear whether Degel HaTorah’s initial call to dissolve the government, and now the coalition’s push to advance its own dissolution legislation, reflect a genuine breakdown or a coordinated political maneuver between Netanyahu and the Haredi factions.
Reports indicating that the ultra-Orthodox parties preferred to back a coalition-sponsored bill to dissolve the Knesset rather than opposition-led legislation further fueled speculation that the ultra-Orthodox parties may still be coordinating with the rest of the coalition behind the scenes on the timing and terms of any potential elections.
A Knesset source with knowledge of the matter told the Times of Israel on Wednesday that the Haredi parties appear “very closely coordinated with Netanyahu.”
They added that if the opposition comes to believe the Haredi parties may backtrack, or ultimately support a coalition-backed dissolution bill instead — as they did Wednesday — it will likely withdraw its own legislation, since failed Knesset dissolution bills cannot be brought back to a vote for six months.
“There is a genuine crisis of confidence between [the ultra-Orthodox parties and Netanyahu], but that doesn’t mean they aren’t coordinating on how and when to dissolve the Knesset in a way that maximizes their political interests,” the source said.
Dr. Assaf Shapira, who leads the Political Reform Program at the Israel Democracy Institute, agreed, adding that this episode is primarily “a struggle over status and framing,” he said.
The Haredi parties want to show their base that they are meaningfully protesting the government’s failure to pass a draft exemption law, even if they have no real intention of toppling the government, he argued, while Netanyahu, though reported to want to delay elections as long as possible, has “a clear interest” in avoiding elections immediately following the anniversary of the October 7, 2023 attacks.
As reported by The Times of Israel