Knesset prepares for nighttime voting on 4 bills crucial to incoming coalition

The Knesset’s Arrangements Committee agrees to fast-track four bills politically required to form Israel’s next government under prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu, enabling them to move up for their first votes on the Knesset floor this evening.

Demanded by far-right and ultra-Orthodox partners as a precondition to forming the government, three of the bills will augment key roles and powers, including expanding the authority of the national security minister — set to be Otzma Yehudit head Itamar Ben Gvir — over the police force; clearing a path for a party leader serving a suspended sentence — Shas’s Aryeh Deri — to helm three ministries; and enabling a member of the Religious Zionism party, likely party leader Bezalel Smotrich, to become an independent minister in the Defense Ministry in control of West Bank building. The fourth will make it harder for rebel MKs to peel off from their parliamentary factions without sanction, and is a bill specifically desired by Likud.

Parties from the incoming opposition dragged the debate on bills out for almost nine hours, utilizing parliamentary tools to delay the vote in an effort to pressure the time-strapped incoming government, which has until December 21 to announce its formation.