The Knesset Plenum on Monday rejected no-confidence motions submitted by opposition factions.
The motion introduced by the Likud, titled “A Government formed through lies and fraud which has no mandate from the public,” was rejected by a 60-49 majority.
The motion introduced by Shas and United Torah Judaism, titled “The Government’s intention to erase the state’s Jewish identity,” was erased by a 59-50 majority.
Minister Ze’ev Elkin (New Hope), who serves as the liaison between the Knesset and the Government, said at the end of the debate to Opposition Chairman MK Benjamin Netanyahu (Likud): “When people demonstrate in front of your official residence that’s not legitimate, but when you use party funds to send thugs to my house to wake up a five-year-old girl at 11:00 PM and frighten her, that’s legitimate. Because in your eyes, whatever serves you will always be legitimate, and whatever removes you from power will always be illegitimate.”
Elkin was referring to the harassment of his wife and child in the period before the establishment of the new government.
Elkin, who once was Netanyahu’s closest confidant, added: “Mr. Leader of the Opposition, you have become illegitimate, but that does not make this Government, the MKs who are a majority in this House who voted for it, and the citizens who voted for these parties—illegitimate. This Government’s sole sin is that it is irrelevant to you personally, because it didn’t want you. Incidentally, another government could have been formed, had you only stepped aside in favor of another member of your party.”
Opposition Chairman MK Netanyahu asked to deliver a personal statement in response and said: “The previous speaker proved the old rule, that when you have no real argument to make, raise your voice. Everyone knows to what extent the previous speaker cares about the country, and to what extent he cares about himself. He skips with alarming ease from one party to the next and then to the next. The problem is not whether the Government is legitimate; the problem with this Government is that it is dangerous, and so we will topple it, much sooner than you think.”