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Wednesday, July 16, 2025
Netanyahu, Smotrich said to be arguing over pick to chair Knesset Finance 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"
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism are currently arguing over which party will take over the powerful Knesset Finance Committee following the resignation of chairman Moshe Gafni of the United Torah Judaism party.
According to Hebrew media reports, Likud wants to appoint one of its own MKs as a placeholder chairman while Smotrich is pushing for the appointment of its lawmaker Moshe Solomon. Otzma Yehudit’s Yitzhak Kroizer has also been named as a contender for the position.
The Ynet news site reports that Likud says that whoever is appointed will be a temporary chairman, with the position being reserved for UTJ should it return to the coalition.
UTJ left the coalition on Monday evening after being presented with a copy of a proposed Haredi enlistment bill, which it argued violated the terms of a compromise that was reached with Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Yuli Edelstein last month.
In the wake of his resignation, Gafni failed to show up for yesterday’s Finance Committee meeting on the government’s compensation plan for businesses and workers harmed economically by last month’s war with Iran, taking participants by surprise.
The discussion cannot advance until the Knesset House Committee appoints a new chairman. Any delay in approving the measure in the committee could result in a failure to pass the compensation bill before the end of the summer legislative session, which wraps up on July 27.
The Times of Israel Community.