Liberman: Suspension bill is dead, we won’t come to PM’s aid

Hawkish Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman says his party will not support the so-called MK suspension bill, which would allow a majority of 90 lawmakers to suspend colleagues from the Knesset for “unseemly behavior.”

“We see the suspension bill as lost, we will not help the prime minister pass it,” Army Radio quotes the erstwhile Netanyahu ally as saying.

Calling the prime minister “a liar, a cheat and a crook,” Liberman says he “is incapable of getting his coalition to pass anything and blames the entire world for it. He blames the High Court and the opposition. He has a coalition of 61, why is he unable to get those 61 to vote for the suspension bill? Would he be able to get 90 MKs to pass something?”

With the narrowest of coalitions, Netanyahu is struggling to muster the 61 MKs needed to pass the legislation, which is to be presented for a Knesset vote this evening. Two of his Likud party’s lawmakers have already said they will not vote for the bill.