Following the resignation of Yamina MK Idit Silman from the coalition last week Prime Minister Naftali Bennett held a very tense meeting with Yamina MK Nir Orbach.

Orbach demanded that the government adopt a religious right-wing agenda and brought up a number of complaints, including the plan of Transportation Minister Merav Michaeli (Labor) to operate the new cable car in Haifa on Shabbos, despite almost zero demand for it.

Not surprisingly, when the Transportation Ministry announced the official launch of the Haifa cable car on Monday, it stated that it was decided that the cable car will not be running on Shabbos, apparently at Bennett’s request.

Orbach also issued an ultimatum to Bennett at the meeting that if three demands weren’t met, he would also leave the coalition: the abolition of the daycare decree, the end of the construction freeze in the settlements, and the connection of “young settlements’ to the electrical grid.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)