Likud to Blue and White: Vote against anti-Bibi bill or elections

Gantz’s party announced they will not attend vote • Election prevention bill to pass first hurdle today

By GIL HOFFMAN
PRIME MINISTER Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White Party leader Benny Gantz pass each other in the Knesset last year. (photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)
PRIME MINISTER Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White Party leader Benny Gantz pass each other in the Knesset last year.
(photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)
The Likud made clear to Blue and White on Tuesday that if the party’s MKs merely absent themselves and do not vote against opposition leader Yair Lapid’s “anti-Bibi bill” in the Knesset plenum on Wednesday, it would lead to elections.
The bill would prevent anyone indicted of serious crimes – including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been indicted for fraud, bribery and breach of trust – from forming a government. Despite earlier threats to vote for the bill, Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz’s party announced on Tuesday its MKs would not attend the vote.
“Our opinion on this matter has not and will not change, but at this time, all the bill would accomplish is destabilizing the political system even further,” Blue and White said. “At this time of one of the worst crises in the history of the state, we decided to do everything possible to prevent elections, which would bring about an economic disaster and tear Israeli society apart.”
The Likud responded that absenting themselves was not good enough and that they had to come physically and vote against it, because not doing so would violate the coalition agreement. Lapid provided pressure from the other side, saying Gantz wrote the bill together with him and supports it, so he should tell his MKs to vote for it.
“They cannot absent themselves from the plenum during the vote,” Lapid said. “They have violated all their promises. This was their chance to fix it.”
Whether or not Blue and White attends the vote, there is no majority to pass the bill. Coalition chairman Miki Zohar has demanded that all of the MKs in the coalition come to defeat Lapid’s bill and pass the first reading of the state budget deadline extension bill.
The bill would postpone the deadline for passing a state budget from August 25 to December 3, giving more time for Netanyahu and Gantz to negotiate an agreement on the budget. Channel 12 reported that Likud was asking Blue and White for concessions and changes in the coalition agreement in return for passing a two-year budget, as Gantz wants and the coalition agreement states.
Following a stormy debate, the bill received permission on Tuesday morning from the Knesset House Committee to come to its first vote in the Knesset plenum on Wednesday in a 10-4 vote. The bill’s sponsor, MK Zvi Hauser, lamented that both Likud and Blue and White were telling their supporters how right they were instead of sitting together and reaching an agreement on a state budget.
“The only question about my bill is whether to punish the public by enabling elections that they don’t want and that would cost NIS 5 billion,” Hauser said.
Gantz will not be able to attend either vote, because he will undergo a surgical procedure on Wednesday morning at Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, due to a long-standing problem with his back. The cabinet approved Minister Michael Biton as Gantz’s replacement as defense minister while Gantz is sedated.
He is expected to stay at the hospital for up to a week. He will be connected to devices that enable him to work from his hospital room.
Netanyahu called Gantz to wish him good luck and good health, a Likud spokesman said.
The Black Flag protest movement canceled a planned protest outside Gantz’s home in Rosh Ha’ayin.