PM leaves hospital bed to push key budget law across finish line, defeat revolt by Ben Gvir

By Sam Sokol 31 December 2024, 6:13 pm

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Sam 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"

Likud MK Boaz Bismuth, center, greets other lawmakers after arriving at the Knesset from sitting shiva following the death of his mother, on December 31, 2024. His shirt is torn in line with Jewish mourning customs. (Knesset spokesperson)

A critical budget-related bill passes its third reading in the Knesset plenum by the thinnest of margins after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leaves his hospital bed post-surgery to ensure that the legislation is approved. It passes despite National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and some members of his far-right Otzma Yehudit party voting with the opposition, and one member of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism voting with the opposition while two others stayed away.

Passing 59-58 — with Netanyahu’s presence therefore essential — the law allows the government to tax so-called “trapped profits,” which are gains earned by corporations and multinationals that are not distributed as dividends to shareholders, but invested in business development, infrastructure, and research and development centers.

With every vote critical, Netanyahu and his associates managed to convince Otzma Yehudit MK Almog Cohen to defy his party’s chairman, Ben Gvir, and vote with the coalition. In addition, Likud officials managed head off opposition by two members of the United Torah Judaism’s Agudat Yisrael faction: MKs Yisrael Eichler and Moshe Roth stay away, rather than voting against the coalition, robbing the opposition of what would have been a rare victory. UTJ’s Yaakov Tessler voted with the opposition.

Also contributing to the coalition’s tally was Likud MK Boaz Bismuth, who left his mother’s shiva — seven-day mourning period — to attend the vote.

Ben Gvir has been boycotting coalition votes due to his demand for a larger budget for the police force that he oversees as national security minister. Agudat Yisrael has engaged in a similar boycott over frustration with the coalition’s refusal to pass legislation granting Haredi yeshiva students blanket exemptions from military service.