PM meets would-be-rebel MK in attempt to avoid another coalition crisis

In a bid to stave off another potential coalition crisis, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is currently meeting with Blue and White MK Michael Biton.

Three weeks ago, Biton briefly shuttered the Knesset Economic Committee, which he chairs, and boycotted voting with the coalition in protest of the government’s reforms in transportation and — to a lesser extent — agriculture.

Bennett and Biton met on May 30, after which Biton resumed his coalition activity, giving the prime minister a two-week timeline to make progress on transportation issues.

That deadline expires next Monday, coinciding with the deadlocked coalition’s next opportunity to bring government legislation.

Biton’s complaints about the transportation reform focus on both substance and procedure. He says the reforms raise prices too quickly in some areas and gripes that they were not processed through his committee, which oversees the Transportation Ministry.