This article is being updated
In a resounding win for the opposition parties and the protest movement, the Knesset voted on Wednesday afternoon for Yesh Atid candidate Karine Elharrar as one of the two representatives on the committee to appoint judges. Elharrar defeated the coalition candidates, including Likud MK Tali Gottlieb, who came second.
58 MKs supported Elharrar’s candidacy, compared to 56 who opposed it. 15 MKs supported Gottlieb, compared to 59 who opposed her. The results show that at least four coalition MKS voted against the party line since the entire opposition has only 54 MKs.
Since a coalition representative has not been elected, the establishment of a new committee to appoint judges will be postponed by one month.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed with the heads of his coalition parties to vote against all the candidates for the committee and to act to postpone the elections for the committee. At the same time, National Union Chairman MK Benny Gantz threatened to blow up the judicial reform talks at the President’s residence if the appointment of the Knesset representatives on the committee is postponed. So, now we got a little of each: there will be an opposition MK on the committee, but there may not be a committee.
After the votes had been counted, Israel Beiteinu Chairman MK Lieberman said: “I call on my friends in the opposition to stop playing coy and immediately announce the end of the talks at the president’s residence. Today it is clearer than ever that this is not an attempt to reach agreements, but a fraudulent exercise to integrate Aryeh Deri into the government. Continuing the talks at the president’s residence will not mean helping to carry the stretcher, but jumping headfirst into a wide and deep pit that Netanyahu and Deri have set for the opposition.”
Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs told Kan 11 News earlier that the representatives of Gantz and Lapid had agreed to allow Deri’s return to the government, which would have required altering the reasonability doctrine under which the Supreme Court initially rejected Deri’s appointment as a government minister. But a spokesman for Opposition Leader Yair Lapid said that this is “a complete lie.”
The biggest takeaway from Wednesday’s drama is that Netanyahu is no longer able to juggle his relationship with his coalition partners together with his relationship with his party members. There were reports of a shouting match between the PM and MK Gottlieb, who refused to withdraw her nomination, despite Netanyahu’s enormous pressure. A first-term MK, Gottlieb has been hugely popular with the right for her staunch anti-leftist positions and her skirmishes with opposition MKs in committees and the plenum.
If Netanyahu couldn’t restrain this newcomer––she received 15 votes when Netanyahu wanted her to get zero, other than her own––how can he control his foes within the Likud faction whom he neglected in favor of lavish appointments to his coalition partners, and how will he manage the dozens of Likud candidates who didn’t make it into the Knesset because of primary vote manipulations?
Those four votes in favor of Elharrar are also a shot across the bow directed at Netanyahu, who has been boasting of his 64-vote majority which on Wednesday may have sunk to 60 at best.
