As parties turn on each other and trust in the prime minister erodes, coalition politicians are increasingly voicing concern their fractious alliance may not last
Sam Sokol July 10, 2024
On Tuesday afternoon, amid rising tensions between members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, Ofir Katz (Likud), the coalition whip, announced the withdrawal of all legislation from the Knesset plenum — highlighting the government’s increasing difficulty in enacting its legislative agenda.
“I am not willing to rely on any party other than the coalition parties, and am not willing to manage [the coalition] based on the whims of its members. I hope that the situation in which the coalition is helping the opposition to hurt us will stop,” Katz wrote to his fellow Likud lawmakers.
His announcement came on the heels of the Knesset’s failure to pass an amendment to the Religious Services Law desired by the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, due to opposition from the far-right Otzma Yehudit. And it underlined why some coalition lawmakers have begun publicly airing concerns that the government’s days may be numbered.
The Religious Services Law was a test of Netanyahu’s ability to deliver for the ultra-Orthodox following the failure of the Shas-backed Rabbis Bill last month — after which Haredi lawmakers indicated that they no longer feel that they can rely on Netanyahu to look out for their interests.
It was this breach of coalition discipline that led one United Torah Judaism lawmaker to tell the Times of Israel that his ultra-Orthodox party, a longtime ally of the prime minister, had “lost its trust and its will to be a part of this coalition.”
“There is no coalition, there is no discipline,” one unnamed Shas official told Kan news at the time.
Following Monday evening’s quarrel, Shas accused Otzma Yehudit leader and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir of “doing everything to undermine the government from within [and] destroying its foundations.”
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