Coalition chairwoman Idit Silman and Likud faction head Yariv Levin met for an hour at Knesset Speaker Mickey Levy’s office on Monday but failed to resolve their dispute over the makeup of the Knesset Finance Committee.
Silman insisted on the coalition maintaining a majority of two MKs. Levin would not agree to a majority of more than one MK.
“There are no agreements yet,” a Likud source said after the meeting. “They will think about our offer and get back to us.”
Last Monday, the High Court of Justice blasted opposition MKs from the Likud and Shas parties regarding their petition to invalidate Knesset committee assignments and imposed a Monday deadline.
Sources in Likud said they were prepared for the dispute to return to the court, where they are likely to lose. Levin has led a campaign for more than a decade of accusing the justices of being too interventionist in Knesset business.
The focus of the dispute has been over the Finance Committee, which will write legislation on the state budget that must be passed into law by November 4 to avoid the initiation of another election.
Levy met with Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman on Monday about proposed reforms included in the budget proposal that Levy and other coalition MKs oppose.
Likud MKs will attend a seminar by former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s then-economic adviser, Prof. Avi Simhon on flaws in the budget that will help them fight against it in the Finance Committee and the Knesset plenum.
The Knesset will not function until September 2, because it will be on recess. MKs and other staff will not be allowed in the building until then.
Following the recess, attention will be focused on passing the budget, whether or not the dispute between the coalition and opposition has been resolved.
Due to the dispute, the Knesset has not yet formed an ethics committee to deal with complaints against the behavior of MKs. A group of former MKs, led by former MK Association head Yigal Bibi, wrote Levy on Monday, asking him to form an ethics committee comprised of former MKs.
The group proposed that the committee include former Labor MK Shimon Shetreet, former Kadima MK Ze’ev Bielski, former Likud MK Moshe Nissim, former National Religious Party MK Zevulun Orlev, former Hadash MK Tamar Gozansky, former Shas MK Yitzhak Vaknin and former Labor MK Zouheir Bahloul.
Sources outside the room told me there that the dispute over the coalition’s 2-seat majority in the Finance Committee is unlikely to be resolved and may go back to court.
Representatives of the coalition and opposition will meet at Levy’s office on Monday, in an effort to resolve their dispute over the make-up of Knesset committees by Monday night’s deadline.
The coalition is insisting on a two-seat majority on the Finance Committee, and a one-seat majority on the Economics Committee. The opposition has demanded an additional seat on both.
Last Monday, the High Court of Justice blasted opposition MKs from the Likud and Shas parties regarding their petition to invalidate the Knesset committee assignments and imposed the Monday deadline.