Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid told President Reuven Rivlin last night that he had succeeded in assembling the required majority to establish a new government. But as the hours pass, the fate of the new government seems uncertain. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others in the Likud and the settler camp are trying to destabilize the coalition with less than two weeks before the swearing-in ceremony for the new government.
Current Knesset speaker Yariv Levin is considered one of Netanyahu’s closest associates. Responsible for the Knesset’s agenda, the speaker theoretically has the power to delay a vote on the new government for a week or more. Such a move would offer the Likud more time to persuade Yamina legislators to defect from the new and very narrow 61-member coalition. Fearing such a possibility, Yesh Atid embarked this morning on a campaign to replace Levin with one of their own, Micky Levy. But Yamina's Nir Orbach refused to toe in line and withdrew his signature from the petition presented as representing the entire coalition.
Yamina head Naftali Bennett met with Orbach this morning at his Ra'anana home. After their meeting, Orbach attacked Netanyahu, saying, “I have no intention of holding talks with those who didn’t make any effort over the last two months to form a right-wing government.” This statement seems to indicate that Orbach will not defect from the change bloc to Netanyahu’s camp. Still, it is unclear whether Orbach will indeed support the quest to replace Levin.
Shortly after this statement, in an unexpected turn of events, the Joint List said it will back the effort to replace Levin. The head of the Joint List's Knesset faction, Ahmad Tibi, handed Levin a letter demanding that the agenda at the next plenum session include a vote on his position. With the support of six Arab lawmakers, the change bloc now has the signatures of 66 legislators to hold a vote on the position of Knesset speaker. If the vote takes place soon, it will enable the new government to be sworn in as early as next Monday.
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