Yamina’s Kara says Orbach had told him coalition freeze was temporary

Yamina MK Abir Kara says he is caught off guard by Nir Orbach’s announcement that he is leaving the coalition, saying that he had been told by Orbach that he was only temporarily freezing cooperation until passage of a law renewing West Bank settlers access to Israeli judicial and government institutions.

“Why would he leave the coalition? He said that he wouldn’t vote with it until the settler law passed,” wonders Kara, who had reportedly been coordinating decisions about whether or not to stay in the coalition with Orbach and Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked.

Kara says that he and Orbach “talk sometimes.”

“I hope that all of us in the party are coordinated,” he says.

A Bennett spokesman confirms that Orbach informed Bennett of his decision before the announcement.

Other MKs have elicited anger by announcing splits from their parties without first giving their soon-to-be-former colleagues a heads-up.