With Israel's streets riven, Bibi picks fights at home
One snapshot from last week’s “40-signature debate” seemed to perfectly encapsulate Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s dismal situation. In a plenum hall teeming with furious opposition MKs, Netanyahu is seen sitting alone at the government table.
Knesset protocol allows for a protest mechanism of sorts under which a minimum of 40 opposition MKs can convene an emergency session that the prime minister is required to attend, keeping him in the plenum for hours to hear one speaker after another haranguing him.
Such sessions are mostly just a way for the opposition to let off some steam, but the prime minister’s expression as he sits in the plenum for hours can provide an indication of the government’s mood — and the country’s.
Some two-thirds of Netanyahu’s Likud faction excused themselves from the debate, claiming prior commitments. But more prominent in their absence were Otzma Yehudit MKs, who spent the day touring the Evyatar outpost instead. United Torah Judaism MKs, who were in the building, barricaded themselves in their offices for hours and only agreed to participate in the vote after yet another cast-iron pledge from Netanyahu.
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