Bennett celebrates the government’s anniversary; Lapid vows revenge against the rebel MKs.
The next candidate to enter the Knesset in Ra’am (United Arab List), Ala Aladeen Jabareen, resigned from the list on Sunday, in a sign that rebel Ra’am MK Mazen Ghanaim will leave soon, too.
Ghanaim has been pressured to resign from the Knesset since his vote against the West Bank emergency bill last Monday.
But Jabareen has extreme views and did not want to be loyal to the Israeli government. He praised Hamas rocket fire on Israeli civilians last year.
If Ghanaim resigns, he will now be replaced in the Knesset by the deputy mayor of Rahat, Ata Abu Madiam, who will give the party an MK from the South, which it has not had since the death of MK Sa’id al-Harumi last year.
Abu Madiam criticized the West Bank emergency bill on Twitter, but he said in a radio interview “if I became an MK, I would vote for the faction’s decisions. I will not rebel.”
Bennett and Orbach
Earlier, in an effort to keep his coalition together, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met with wavering Yamina MK Nir Orbach.
Both sides said after the meeting that “there is nothing new to report.” When they met Thursday night, Orbach urged him to shift his government rightward and threatened to accept an offer from Likud of a reserved slot in the next election if he would bring the government down.
Bennett asked Orbach for more time to resolve the coalition’s multiple crises.
At Sunday’s cabinet meeting, Bennett noted Monday’s one-year anniversary of the formation of his government.
“I think anyone honest with himself would admit that this is one if the best governments the state has had, but it relies on one if the toughest coalitions the Knesset has known,” Bennett told his ministers. “This government that took the state from paralysis to growth, from weakness to deterrence and from chaos to normalcy cannot be stopped. We have to keep fighting for the Israeli public.”
Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid added his own praise for the government and then warned the coalition rebels not to bring it down.
“Whoever acts irresponsibly now, needs to know that the Israeli public will take revenge,” Lapid said.
Labor leader Merav Michaeli said her party is absolutely committed to the continued existence of the coalition.
“From here, I call on the other members of the coalition – do not be tempted by lies and delusions, do not put Netanyahu and his soldiers back in power,” she said.
As reported by The Jerusalem Post