Likud, Blue and White backtrack on coalition deal for court approval
Marathon Knesset session on government bills begins
The Likud and Blue and White made a series of concessions on their coalition agreement on Tuesday in a joint filing to the Supreme Court, in hopes of having a positive impact on the court’s ruling on the legality of the deal.
The filing came a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the court that because the coalition agreement was sensitive, changes could not be made and could lead to additional elections.
The parties agreed to set policy guidelines for their government after initially saying that no guidelines would be drawn for six months, except on dealing with the coronavirus and implementing US President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan.
The initial coalition agreement signed by Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz ruled out legislation unrelated to those two issues. In the filing to the court, the parties said legislation would not be prohibited but bills related to the coronavirus would take precedence.
After the judges criticized a clause in the coalition agreement ruling out key appointments for six months, the filing changes the limit to only 100 days or sooner if there is a consensus. The decision is expected to impact the long-awaited appointments of a police inspector-general and a state prosecutor.
A bill Blue and White wanted that would allow its ministers to quit the Knesset and be replaced only by Blue and White candidates who are allies of Gantz and not from the opposition YeshAtid Telem faction has been shelved, and forming the government will not be dependent on it. A less far-reaching bill will be drafted instead.
The Supreme Court is expected to rule on Thursday on the coalition agreement’s legality after the changes are submitted to the Knesset.
Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit late Tuesday responded to the amended coalition deal declaring that the changes – along with a declaration by the parties that their deal could not override established legal principles – were sufficient and meant that he would drop all further opposition to the deal.
Previously, Mandelblit had told the High Court of Justice that the deal as a whole should be approved, but that specific smaller provisions in the deal might need to be fixed or nixed.
The Knesset plenum began
what is expected to be a marathon session of deliberations on the bills necessary to form a government on Tuesday morning ahead of Thursday night’s deadline to pass the bills.
Opposition parties submitted 1,000 amendments to the bills in an attempt to filibuster and make Likud and Blue and White miss the deadline. They submitted 9,000 in a Knesset committee this week but they agreed to limit it to 1,000 in the plenum.
Presumptive opposition leader Yair Lapid started the marathon session with a speech condemning his former political partner, Gantz, for legislating the bills enabling Netanyahu to form the government and remain in office until November 2021.
“When you go to elections based on a set of principles you either win or lose but you don’t