Justice Minister Gideon Sa'ar revealed on Monday that during coalition negotiations, the Likud offered to enact retroactive term limits for prime ministers that would have resulted in the end of Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu's political career.
Sa'ar (New Hope) spoke in a debate at the Knesset's Law and Constitution Committee on his bill that would limit prime ministers to eight years in office. He told the committee that, unlike the Likud's version seven months earlier, his bill would not be retroactive to apply to Netanyahu.
The justice minister vowed to pass the new bill by the end of the Knesset's winter session, which ends on March 13.
"We promised this bill to our voters, the coalition agrees on it, and we want to finish legislating it quickly," Sa'ar told the committee. "I think a very large majority of the public supports it."
Opposition MKs blasted the bill and vowed to repeal it if it passes into law. Netanyahu's confidant, Likud MK Amir Ohana told the committee that "no one has any doubt that the bill would not have been raised if it weren't for Netanyahu."
"I think the people decide, even if certain people don't think they are smart enough and don't like their decisions," Likud MK Shlomo Karhi said. "That's what happens in a democracy. We don't need to be the 'dark' unto the nations."