Parties trade blame as coalition chaos enables opposition to defeat bill for first time
This is ‘how governments fall apart,’ declares Lapid; coalition forced to nix day’s agenda after losing vote on traffic bill; Otzma Yehudit, absent from vote, denies boycott
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. 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"
The coalition pulled a series of bills that had been set to come to a vote in the Knesset on Wednesday after it failed to secure a majority on the first vote of the day, with coalition members trading blame.
A minor bill put forward by the government to regulate taxi meters was defeated 21-20 in its first vote, making it the first time the opposition has gained a majority over the coalition in the plenum since the government was sworn in at the end of 2022.
The opposition apparently did not have substantive issues with the bill — rather, it pounced on an opportunity to embarrass the coalition.
Though some in the coalition blamed National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s far-right Otzma Yehudit party for the bill’s failure, alleging the party had intentionally boycotted the session due to internal disagreements within the government, the far-right party insisted that it “did not boycott votes.”
At one point, Otzma Yehudit claimed that the opposition had violated an agreement whereby all items put to a vote during the day would pass, and “took advantage of a situation in which only around 20 coalition MKs were present and voted to overturn the legislation.” But there was no confirmation that such an agreement had been in place.
Meanwhile, sources from Otzma Yehudit told the Walla news site that Likud MK Ofir Katz, the coalition whip, was to blame, charging that he had dropped the ball and enabled the opposition to vote down the bill. Katz, they said, had failed to appoint a rotating minister to speak at the plenum, which would have bought time for more coalition MKs to arrive in the chamber before the vote was held.
Addressing the plenum following the bill’s defeat, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid indicated that the events presaged the breakdown of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s increasingly fractious coalition.
“If you want to know how governments fall apart and coalitions fall, the answer is: like this, just like this,” he said.
A little later, answering a reporter’s question during his Yesh Atid party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, Lapid predicted: “When we return from the recess, around November-December, the government will fall and we will go to elections.”
Ben Gvir has increasingly feuded with other coalition parties over plenum votes, his policies at the Temple Mount and his insistence on having greater say over decision-making in the war. Netanyahu is widely regarded as deeply distrusting the firebrand far-right minister and refusing to include him in such decision-making forums.
Last week, Ben Gvir torpedoed the Shas-backed Religious Services Law for the third time, accusing his coalition partner of blocking his inclusion in a senior ministerial forum.
Ben Gvir has a history of threatening his coalition partners to advance his political and policy goals.
In January, he threatened the stability of the coalition over open-fire rules for IDF soldiers in the Gaza Strip, only a month after he had threatened to bolt the coalition over the government’s handling of the war against Hamas at the time, asserting that he would leave if the military offensive did not “continue at full strength.”
In April, he tweeted that a “reckless deal equals the dissolution of the government,” while in June, his party announced it would no longer vote with the coalition in order to force Netanyahu to disclose details of an Israeli proposal for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
