The bill is intended to make it illegal for Netanyahu to form the next government and to embarrass Blue and White for not toppling the government.
By GIL HOFFMANPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a Knesset vote on a bill that would prevent anyone under criminal indictment from serving as prime minister, November 18, 2020(photo credit: KNESSET SPOKESPERSON/DANI SHEM TOV)
Knesset members of Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz’s Blue and White faction did not participate in Wednesday afternoon’s vote on a bill sponsored by Yesh Atid-Telem that would prevent anyone under criminal indictment from serving as prime minister.The bill, which failed by a vote of 50 to 36, was intended to make it illegal for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to form the next government and to publicly shine a spotlight on Blue and White for not toppling the government. After Netanyahu attended the vote to ensure the bill would be defeated, Meretz faction head Tamar Zandberg petitioned the Knesset legal adviser to determine whether it was illegal for him to vote, due to his conflict of interest.“The party does not need proposals from the opposition in order to advance its views,” a Blue and White spokesman said. “Blue and White will act according to its good judgment in the time and place that fit the party’s interests.”Opposition leader Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) told Blue and White MKs that they should back the bill because it would help make Gantz prime minister. He said Netanyahu cannot function under indictment, because he has to constantly fear the future sound of the jail door slamming with him inside the cell.Ministerial liaison to the Knesset David Amsalem (Likud) responded that the bill was “the most antidemocratic bill ever.”Blue and White also boycotted a vote on forming a commission of inquiry to probe why Israel has not passed a state budget in two years, which fell by a 45 to 34 vote. Lapid told a rally of the anti-Netanyahu group Darkenu on Wednesday morning that the lack of a state budget is a disaster.“The state is not being managed and there is no budget,” Lapid said. “This is irresponsibility on a national scale.”According to the coalition agreement, Gantz is supposed to replace Netanyahu as prime minister on November 17, 2021, 18 months after the government’s formation.Because six months have passed, the government has ceased to be “an emergency coronavirus government” and has become a national-unity government. If either Netanyahu or Gantz topple the government on any issue other than the state budget not passing, the other would serve as caretaker prime minister until a new government is formed.
