As Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu’s deadline to form a coalition looms, his Likud party on Tuesday evening signed an interim coalition agreement with United Torah Judaism.
According to the UTJ, the party signed a document indicating that it had accepted the distribution of roles in the next government, “since an extension must be requested from the president”.
The ultra-Orthodox party said it would hold another meeting on Wednesday to iron out “fundamental issues” before signing a final coalition agreement.
As the December 11 deadline approaches, Netanyahu’s Likud party has yet to strike coalition deals with all the parties in the right-wing religious bloc it led to victory in the December 1 elections. november.
Netanyahu is expected to ask Herzog for a two-week extension, but will have to explain why talks so far have not resulted in an agreement from his allies.
In the agreement with the UTJ, the party should receive control of the Ministry of Construction and Housing, which should go to faction leader Yitzchak Goldknopf, and the chairmanship of the Knesset Finance Committee, which should be held by MP Moshe Gafni.
Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu meets with UTJ MK Moshe Gafni in Jerusalem on November 6, 2022. (Courtesy)
The party will also control the Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Ministry, receive several deputy minister posts and control a handful of other Knesset committees.
The deal was signed as Netanyahu faces a dilemma over how best to explain to President Isaac Herzog why he needs more time to cobble together a coalition if he wants to be given more time to try to form a government.
According to a Channel 12 report, Netanyahu must choose between convincing Herzog he needs more time to rally all parties or informing the president that he has indeed made his pledge but the extension is needed to pass the legislation necessary for the finalization of the coalition. Agreements.
The report notes that while Herzog will most likely agree to give Netanyahu more time, he is not limited to the two-week maximum and can also choose a shorter period.
The new coalition parties have already shown that they work together in the Knesset.
Netanyahu’s Likud party announced on Monday that its allied party bloc – which holds a majority of 64 seats out of the 120 Knesset members – had collected the 61 signatures needed to force a vote on replacing the speaker of parliament even before that the next government takes an oath. Knesset Speaker Mickey Levy said he would convene the plenum for that vote next Monday, after Netanyahu’s term expires without an extension.
Likud leader MK Benjamin Netanyahu seen after coalition talks with Shas chairman MK Aryeh Deri and religious Zionist party leader MK Bezalel Smotrich outside a hotel in Jerusalem on December 5, 2022 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
The election of a new president, from the Netanyahu-led bloc, is a key prerequisite for the planned right-wing-religious coalition to take office, given that several of Netanyahu’s planned ministerial appointments and commitments to the new coalition parties require changes to existing legislation, and the speaker wields considerable control over the Knesset’s legislative agenda.
The controversial legislative blitz would include passing an amendment to Israel’s quasi-constitutional Basic Laws to allow Shas party leader Aryeh Deri to be sworn in as minister alongside the rest of the incoming government despite the fact that was given a suspended sentence for tax evasion earlier this year. .
The attorney general says the Central Elections Committee should consider whether the current, vaguely worded law bars someone who has been given a suspended sentence from becoming a minister, but Netanyahu plans to circumvent the issue entirely by changing the law . Deri, who served a prison sentence for corruption earlier in his career, is expected to become health and interior minister in the next government, according to coalition agreements.
The planned legislative changes would also include the ability for the Knesset to overturn decisions of the High Court of Justice with a simple majority of 61 votes. The notwithstanding clause, among other concerns, could forestall any legal challenges to Deri’s ministerial appointment. Critics have warned that an override clause would seriously disrupt the separation of powers between the judiciary and the legislature.
Justice Minister Gideon Saar attends a ceremony at the Justice Ministry in Jerusalem on June 28, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Earlier on Tuesday, outgoing Justice Minister Gideon Saar called on Herzog to reject any request for a term extension, calling it a “deception,” saying Netanyahu had already finished building his coalition and was only delaying the announcement. to pass a series first. of “problematic laws” on which its allies insist.
The likelihood of Herzog refusing the request is considered very low since there is no other candidate for the post of Prime Minister, and since extensions have been granted in the past in order to finalize the coalition agreements, and although the president has the discretion to weigh the request, it is limited.
Netanyahu was given 28 days by Herzog on November 13 to form a government, after a majority among newly elected Knesset members recommended him as prime minister.
