Disaster for Israeli coalition as legislator walks out
Idit Silman has joined the opposition, ending the government's narrow majority in the Knesset.
Knesset coalition whip Idit Silman dropped a bomb on April 6, announcing she was quitting the governing coalition and calling into doubt the survival of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s government formed less than 10 months ago.
Silman wrote Bennett that she can no longer support the government, adding that she would now devote herself to winning over other right-wing coalition members and convince them to return to their ideological fold and form a right-wing government to replace the current one that includes left-wing and centrist parties.
“I am attentive to voices from the field and to the sincere protest of the electorate whose support got us elected, and also to the pain of those who did not vote for us but belong to the national camp. I can no longer bear the damage to values and flags that are our essence and right,” she wrote.
Silman is a member of Bennett’s Yamina party. Her decision was particularly jarring because she appears to have cooked up the move without informing him that she was negotiating with the opposition Likud party for a top slot in a future government.
