The Knesset voted 53-37 on Wednesday against a bill preventing anyone indicted of serious crimes from forming a government. If passed, the bill would have prevented Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu from forming a coalition if new elections are held.

The bill was filed by opposition leader Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid. “Netanyahu is managing the [coronavirus] crisis horribly,” Lapid said from the plenum. “He failed. The 40-year-old prime minister of New Zealand with a small baby at home did better work than Netanyahu.”

In a surprise move, Netanyahu went up to the Knesset plenum and responded to Lapid: “Yair Lapid, a thousand masks won’t succeed in concealing your dictatorship. You and [Joint List chairman] Ayman Odeh can’t beat us at the ballot boxes so you encourage left-wing demonstrations on one hand and on the other hand you propose Iranian law in the Knesset in order to disqualify me from being elected as prime minister.”

“I stand here as the prime minister of Israel, by virtue of the election of the people, by virtue of the will of the people. A huge number of the public, unprecedented in size, put their faith in me during the elections.”

“You can’t stop the truth. Over a million citizens voted for Likud under my leadership. Yair Lapid and Ayman Odeh want to harm the public will, like what happens in dictatorial regimes. The proposal of this bill is a complete distortion. Where do they pass such laws? The only place in the world that passes laws to thwart candidates is in Iran and North Korea.”

The Knesset also passed a preliminary reading of a bill extending the deadline for the government to pass a national budget, which will hopefully avert a coalition crisis resulting in the fourth round of elections.

The bill, which extends the August 25 deadline by 100 days, passed 56-41.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)