Israeli Government Loses Majority as Backbencher Quits

Israel's Prime Minister Naftali Bennett speaks as he visits an army base in the Jewish settlement of Beit El, near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, April 5, 2022. (Reuters)
Israel's Prime Minister Naftali Bennett speaks as he visits an army base in the Jewish settlement of Beit El, near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, April 5, 2022. (Reuters)
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Israeli Government Loses Majority as Backbencher Quits

Israel's Prime Minister Naftali Bennett speaks as he visits an army base in the Jewish settlement of Beit El, near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, April 5, 2022. (Reuters)
Israel's Prime Minister Naftali Bennett speaks as he visits an army base in the Jewish settlement of Beit El, near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, April 5, 2022. (Reuters)

An Israeli lawmaker quit the government's wafer-thin ruling coalition over a religious dispute on Wednesday, throwing the fragile alliance into disarray without a majority in parliament.

Backbencher Idit Silman's departure raises the possibility of new parliamentary elections less than a year after the government took office. While Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s government remains in power, it is now hamstrung in the 120-seat parliament and will likely struggle to function.

Silman, from Bennett’s religious-nationalist Yamina party, had opposed the distribution of leavened bread and foodstuffs in public hospitals — in breach of religious tradition during the Passover holiday, public broadcaster Kan reported.

Bennett's coalition of eight political parties ranging from Islamists to hard-line nationalists and dovish liberals — all united solely in their opposition to former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu — now holds 60 seats in the Knesset, Israel's parliament.

The Knesset is currently in recess, and it remains unclear if the opposition will now have enough support to hold a no-confidence vote and send Israelis to the polls for the fifth time in just over three years.

Silman, said she “cannot lend a hand to harming the Jewish character of the state of Israel and the people of Israel,” and would work to form a right-wing government, Kan reported.

Israel has held four elections in two years in a protracted political crisis over Netanyahu's fitness to rule while on trial for corruption. The deadlocked elections were finally broken in June when Bennett and his allies ousted Netanyahu after 12 years in office by cobbling together a coalition of unlikely allies.

Netanyahu, now opposition leader, congratulated Silman and “welcomed her back home to the nationalist camp.”



Iran Guards Chief Says Netanyahu ICC Warrant 'Political Death' of Israel

Revolutionary Guards chief General Hossein Salami - File/AFP
Revolutionary Guards chief General Hossein Salami - File/AFP
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Iran Guards Chief Says Netanyahu ICC Warrant 'Political Death' of Israel

Revolutionary Guards chief General Hossein Salami - File/AFP
Revolutionary Guards chief General Hossein Salami - File/AFP

The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Friday described the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a former defense minister as the “end and political death” of Israel, in a speech.
“This means the end and political death of the Zionist regime, a regime that today lives in absolute political isolation in the world and its officials can no longer travel to other countries,” Revolutionary Guards chief General Hossein Salami said in the speech aired on state TV.
In the first official reaction by Iran, Salami called the ICC warrant “a welcome move” and a “great victory for the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance movements,” both supported by the Islamic republic, AFP reported.
The court also issued a warrant for the arrest of Hamas’s military chief Mohammed Deif.
The warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant were issued in response to accusations of crimes against humanity and war crimes during Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, sparked by the Palestinian militant group’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
The ICC’s move theoretically limits the movement of Netanyahu, as any of the court’s 124 national members would be obliged to arrest him on their territory.
The court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan urged the body’s members to act on the warrants, and for non-members to work together in “upholding international law.”