Netanyahu said Otzma is preparing a plan to split Yehudit if Ben Gvir breaks the alliance
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly preparing a contingency plan aimed at preserving his current coalition if the national security minister quits the government, as he regularly threatens to do.
According to Army Radio, Netanyahu’s aides have contacted various lawmakers in Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party and asked them about the in-principle option of splitting the far-right party and staying with the coalition if Ben Gvir leaves.
The report says no MK would agree to it, but adds that Netanyahu’s Likud party is mapping each Otzma Yehudit MP’s priorities and “weak spots” and their initial refusal to determine whether Trying to figure out what it would take for them to agree to a future proposal.
Netanyahu currently has a 64-strong coalition in the 120-member Knesset. Ben Gvir’s party has six MKs, meaning at least three of them would be needed to retain the coalition’s parliamentary majority.
One is reportedly considered relatively easy to obtain – Almog Cohen, who has openly challenged Ben Gwyr and has been punished for,
Army Radio said Netanyahu’s office also aimed to draw opposition MK Gadi Esenkot and Matan Kahana of the National Unity Party to vote with the coalition on some judicial overhaul bills. He has so far refused, but the manner in which he refused and other comments made during these talks reportedly raised Likud’s hopes that anything could be possible if the coalition is close to breaking down.
Eisencott and Kahana insist they will not support the overhaul legislation “under any circumstances”.
Likud says the report is false, and that such a plan “never happened and will never happen.”