From the Liveblog of
Monday, January 27, 2025
Coalition denies Netanyahu-Ben Gvir, Smotrich deal to preserve right-wing hold on judicial committee
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
The leadership of the coalition denies claims by Itamar Ben Gvir’s far-right Otzma Yehudit party that it has reached a three-way deal with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism in order to “preserve the right-wing’s power on the Judicial Appointments Committee.”
“Despite Otzma Yehudit’s announcement, an agreement between the parties has not yet been reached,” the coalition states.
In a statement, Otzma Yehudit asserted that under the claimed agreement, Smotrich would no longer return to the Knesset as an MK, a move that pushed Otzma Yehudit MK Yitzhak Kroizer out of parliament under the so-called Norwegian Law — which allows ministers and deputy ministers from large factions to resign from the Knesset when appointed to the government, with their seats filled by members of their parties.
This would allow Kroizer to remain in the Knesset and keep his seat on the influential committee, whose composition was a central part of the government’s judicial overhaul agenda, which Levin is currently seeking to revive.
In turn, Otzma Yehudit said it would allow rebel MK Almog Cohen to vote against his party’s positions, something he has already been doing for some time — while Kroizer would be required to give 48 hours notice if he intends to vote against the coalition so that Smotrich could decide whether or not to return to the Knesset.
Otzma Yehudit says in a statement that in order to be implemented, the agreement requires Cohen’s consent and calls on him “not to harm the right-wing’s power on the Judicial Appointments Committee.”
Cohen was the only member of Itamar Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit not to hand in a resignation letter last Sunday morning, when the rest of his party’s ministers and lawmakers announced that they were pulling out of the coalition to protest the cabinet’s approval of a ceasefire agreement with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Asked for comment, Cohen tells the Times of Israel that the announcement is “fake.”
The Times of Israel Community.