By Gil Hoffman, JPost—
The short term of the 23rd Knesset came one key step closer to completion on Wednesday, when MKs from the opposition and Blue and White passed Knesset dispersal bills.
Bills sponsored by Meretz and Yesh Atid-Telem passed by a vote of 61 to 54. Bills sponsored by Yamina and the Joint List did not pass.
While the voting took place, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz sat next to each other and made a point of looking in different directions. Earlier, Likud minister David Amsalem, who is close to Netanyahu, called Gantz “spineless.”
The bills were only passed in their preliminary readings, so they must pass three more times in the plenum and three times in the Knesset House Committee to become law and enable the parliament to be dispersed.
The Joint List’s four-member Ra’am (United Arab List) party, led by MK Mansour Abbas, decided to not attend the vote, despite pressure from their Joint List colleagues to support the bill.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will respond to the Knesset’s dispersal bills at 8pm on Wednesday evening during the highly rated nightly newscasts, his Likud Party announced.
“I call upon the Knesset to vote in favor of this bill, to disperse and let the people of Israel choose a government that genuinely cares about them,” said opposition leader Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid-Telem), who initiated the process of dispersing the Knesset. Continue Reading….
