The coalition managed to overcome two votes of no-confidence, one introduced by Likud, which garnered 52 votes in favor and 61 against, and the other by Shas, which garnered 52 votes in favor and 56 against, at the Knesset on Monday.
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At the Knesset, Bennett said: "We are starting the [Knesset] session on the right foot. The silent majority is interested in this government's success. The silent majority should make its voice more known."
To contend with Yamina MK's Idit Silman's resignation from the coalition and the decision by Ra'am to boycott votes in the Knesset, the coalition has decided to adopt a new strategy.
Acting coalition chairman Yesh Atid MK Boaz Toporovsky told Israel Hayom he intends to do "everything possible to pass laws for Israel's citizens. To that end, every collaboration with every party from the Joint Arab list to the Haredim and the Religious Zionism Party is kosher. Anything for the continued improvement of Israeli citizens' lives."
The new policy will see the coalition help opposition members pass personal legislation on social and financial issues as confidence-building measures to secure their cooperation on legislation important to the coalition.
Toporovsky's policy, which will see the Joint Arab List score victories on budget issues and on legislation in return for its vote against the no-confidence motion at Ra'am's expense, will make the Islamist party's boycott of Knesset votes in response to tensions over Al-Aqsa Mosque irrelevant.
The opposition attacked the move.
Otzma Yehudit MK Itamar Ben-Gvir blasted the move, tweeting: "Cooperation with the Joint Arab List? Those who openly support soldiers' murder. For shame!"
Religious Zionism Party MK Simcha Rothman said: "The comparison between the Joint Arab List and Ra'am and United Torah Judaism as seen by Boaz Toprovsky is grave. The government has completely lost the public's trust. Our defectors are in the coalition. The question is, what they prefer: hatred of Netanyahu and being dependent on the Shura Council or the good of the state."
Likud MK Ofir Katz responded: "They no longer have a problem saying it public: to maintain their seats, we will cooperate with supporters of terror, supporters of terrorists, visitors of terrorists who murdered Jews and rebel against the Israel Police ...."
In an interview with Army Radio Tuesday, Communications Minister Hanzel cautioned: "If Ra'am decides tomorrow morning to shift from civil issues to diplomatic concepts that I find unacceptable, then there will not be a government. If they ultimately choose to leave, they will leave. I have no control over it."
In what is poised to be a serious challenge for the coalition, the Knesset on Wedneday will vote on whether or not to dissolve the government. While the coalition made it through two no-confidence motions, this will be a different story.
It remains unclear whether Ra'am will abstain from the vote or vote with the coalition out of concern the move could pass a first reading in the Knesset.
In an interview with Arabic-language Al-Shams Radio Monday, Joint Arab List MK Ahmad Tibi said his party would vote in favor of the Knesset's dissolution. Such a move would mean the coalition would not have the support of a majority of the Knesset in the vote.
According to Yesh Atid, the coalition was set to commence efforts toward passing legislation for the Haredi lawmakers Tuesday.
Hectic talks are reportedly underway between officials at the Prime Minister's Office and senior members of the United Torah Judaism party for the latter to replace Ra'am in the coalition. The Haredi party has denied the report and even issued a joint statement with Shas saying it would work to replace and not join the coalition.
UTJ MK Moshe Gafni has attacked Netanyahu in recent weeks and called for the Likud party to replace him as party leader to allow for the establishment of a right-wing government. At the same time, talks commenced on potential cooperation between senior officials from the Ashkenazi Haredi party and coalition officials, and the PMO. These talks were conducted by Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, among others.
Ahead of the Knesset's return from the summer recess, intensive talks were held on the coalition's continued activity in the absence of a Knesset majority. In these talks, the possibility of either replacing Ra'am or at least grow the coalition by a couple of lawmakers to neutralize Ra'am's role in the government.
The assessment in Yamina is that if UTJ replaces Ra'am in the coalition, MK Idit Silman, who quit over the issue of unleavened goods over Passover, would return to the coalition. Several other coalition members are also uncomfortable sitting in a coalition with Ra'am given the current security situation.
At a Yamina faction meeting, Bennett said his goal was "to stabilize and possibly even expand the government."
While Gafni is supposedly very much in favor of the move, some members of UTJ, and MKs Yitzhak Pundrus and Shirly Pinto in particular. The Shas party is also opposed to ending the alliance with Netanyahu and is responsible for a joint statement from both the Haredi parties saying, "The current government does not have the public's trust, and without a majority in the Knesset repeatedly harms the Haredi and traditional public. We will continue to do everything we can to replace it with a nationalist government that will provide security to Israel's citizens and represents Jewish tradition and the weaker classes with dignity."
While United Torah Judaism does not have any problem joining a coalition with Lapid and the Yamina, New Hope, and Labor parties, Finance Minister and Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Lieberman, who has been an outspoken critic of the Haredi sector, does pose an obstacle to the move.
The Joint Arab List, meanwhile, made clear it would not help Opposition Leader Benjamin Netanyahu return to power after five of its party members voted with the coalition in a no-confidence motion Monday. With 61 Knesset members voting against and 52 in favor, the motion failed to pass the Knesset.
In an Arabic-language statement, the party said: "There are major lies and fraud, and our vote today is on the no-confidence motion in the current government and not the bill to dissolve the Knesset. In a no-confidence motion, Netanyahu will be crowned and will return to the premiership, and we as the Joint Arab List will not support any step that restores Netanyahu to power and we are acting only in the interest of Arab society, to obtain its rights with dignity.
"We are against Netanyahu's approach, and we will not support any no-confidence motion submitted by the Likud, and we will not in any way be a lifeline for Netanyahu and his party. Our position on Netanyahu and his racist policies is clear, and it is not an alternative to this government. We prevented Netanyahu from returning to power, and in return, we will not support the Naftali Bennett government in any vote against Arab society and our Palestinian nation, nor with the Ra'am party, which made one concession after another against our people and is now on the fringes of influence in the political arena despite all the concessions it made, which confirms the correctness of the Joint Arab List's approach.
Ra'am member Walid Taha retorted: "Lies, fraud, and hypocrisy, and the fig leaf that fell on the faces of patriots! The current government, according to the description of the 'six guardians of patriotism' in the Joint Arab List, has been the bloodiest in Israel's history … and it has murdered Palestinians, and it has done nothing for them and for the good of Arab society!' And after all this, the six members of the Joint Arab List votes with the coalition in a no-confidence motion we abstained from!
"The Joint Arab List could have avoided the vote, and the government would not have fallen and would not have needed them. So why did you vote in favor despite all your claims and accusations against the government and against us? …"
In a text message targeting the Arab Israeli sector, the Ra'am party wrote: "The Joint Arab List voted in favor of the Bennett government and prevented its collapse despite all the Joint Arab List's attacks on the government and the man at its head at a time of riots and incidents at Al-Aqsa. This shows that the Joint Arab List's attacks against [Ra'am chief] Mansour Abbas and Ra'am are empty slogans and nothing but show."
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