MK Ahmad Tibi told Channel 12 News that he would support the anti-Netanyahu bill that the coalition would submit. The bill would prevent anyone with an indictment from serving as prime minister, and specifically targets former PM Netanyahu to prevent him from returning to power.
Minister’s Avigdor Liberman and Gideon Sa’ar requested from PM Naftali Bennett that he remove his veto on introducing the bill. If Bennett does so, with Tibi’s support it appears the Tibi-Bennett coalition will have majority support to legislate blocking Netanyahu’s return to power.
In recent weeks, the coalition has been claiming that Netanyahu has been collaborating with Tibi, in an attempt to delegitimize the Likud, but on Monday evening, Tibi held a very long meeting with Gideon Sa’ar, and it appears that cat is now out of the bag.
סער נפגש הערב בלשכתו בכנסת פגישה ארוכה עם אחמד טיבי.
— moti kastel מוטי קסטל (@KastelMoti) June 13, 2022
It might also explain why Matan Kahana rushed to apologize specifically to Ahmad Tibi of all people this morning for his misspoken train remark.
Liberman and Sa’ar need to pass it fast before their coalition completely collapses.
As with anything in Israeli politics, there’s always the law of unintended consequences.
If the bill does pass, with Netanyahu knocked out of the game, then there’s nothing blocking Sa’ar or Yamina from forming a new coalition with the Likud, meaning, the leftwing members of the coalition are potentially sounding their own death knell with the vote.
Still, the Likud may try to force a new election, with the hope of punishing Yamina and New Hope. It may also permanently burn the bridges of everyone in Yamina, and that’s not something Yamina people may be willing to do.
It will also be much easier to for the bureaucrats to remove a prime minister they don’t favor.
Either way, it ends the denials that Tibi’s party is not cooperating with the coalition.
