Coalition crisis: Yamina MK Nir Orbach's ultimatum to the Prime Minister - Hezki Baruch

 

by Hezki Baruch

Orbach wants electricity for young settlements, end to construction freeze, and return to daycare subsidies --otherwise, he's out.

 

Nir Orbach with Naftali Bennett                                                          Yonatan Sindel/Flash90

MK Nir Orbach (Yamina) has handed Prime Minister Naftali Bennett a list of demands he wants to see met as a condition for remaining in the coalition.

Orbach is demanding:

1) Cancelling the daycare subsidy reforms which would limit daycare subsidies to families where both parents work (depriving families where the father is in full-time Torah study or studying for the Rabbinate of the subsidy).

2) Convening the Supreme Planning Council in order to authorize new housing units for Jews in Judea and Samaria.

3) Young settlements to receive electricity via connection to the national grid.

"Without a solution on these issues I will not be able to remain in the coalition," Orbach told Bennett.

On Thursday morning, Prime Minister Bennett and Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked toured the city of Harish, where they asked for media to release a photo of them both together, apparently as a sign of continued cooperation following Yamina MK Idit Silman's decision to bolt the coalition.

Meanwhile, the Yamina party is weighing whether to declare Yamina MK Amichai Chikli a "defector" in order to prevent him from joining another political party at the next elections.

Yamina MK Abir Kara has apparently asked the party to defer the decision until later, as he has a good relationship with Chikli. Yesterday, the Prime Minister met with other party members, following which several Yamina members conferred together in Bennett's absence.

"Elections are no solution," Kara told Galei Tzahal after MK Silman announced she was leaving the government. "I have no idea what will happen next, but as long as we can continue to deliver on economic issues, I don't see any alternative [to the current coalition]. I am a right-winger through and through, and we have right-wing achievements to our credit."

Kara added that he is "trying to stabilize the situation, which is what he discussed with Shaked and Orbach."

 

Hezki Baruch

Source: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/325413

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