The Bennett-Lapid government is feeling the pressure of passing its national budget in the Knesset by November since failure to do so means the automatic dissolution of the government.

The coalition has a razor-thin majority of 61 MKs, including the unreliable members of the Islamist Ra’am party, so they’re making frantic efforts to ensure the passing of the budget by “bribing” the members of the Joint Arab List.

Senior coalition members are currently engaged in extensive negotiations with the members of the Joint Arab List party in the hope that they can convince them to vote in favor of the budget or at least abstain from voting against it. According to an Army Radio report on Tuesday, the negotiations have seen significant progress in recent days and a potential deal has been formulated.

According to the report, the coalition members will vote for the Joint List’s “Electricity Law,” which will allow homes without building permits, like many in Arab society, to be connected to the electrical grid, as well as several lesser items, in exchange for its support or abstainment of the budget vote.

“Enough with the euphemisms!” said Religious Zionist party chairman Betzalel Smotrich in response to the report. “The ‘Electricity Law’ is in actuality whitewashing tens of thousands of illegal structures in the Arab sector.”

“[The law] will encourage continued illegal construction and their takeover of land. This government is selling Zionism and the state to anti-Zionist terror supporters in exchange for political survival without any red lines. It’s an extremely dangerous situation.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)