The ruling coalition was forced to withdraw its bill on the law to limit prime minister terms in office on Wednesday and postpone the final vote until next week, after it did not have the necessary majority to approve it in the Knesset due to the bill's definition as a "vote of confidence."
The Prime Minister's Restrictions Act, one of the coalition's flagship laws led by Justice Minister Gideon Sa'ar, has not been finalized due to resistance by the opposition.
The debate on the law lasted over 13 hours consisting for the most part of opposition members' reservations. Just before the third reading MK Michael Malkieli (Shas) sought to declare the law's vote to limit tenure as a "vote of confidence."
The opposition tried to embarrass the Joint List Arab political party and sought to define the law as a vote of no confidence in the government, thus making it difficult for them to support the law.
Since this is a change to a Basic Law, the coalition had to pass the law by an absolute majority of at least 61 MKs, which is also the exact number of legislators in the current coalition, but Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was forced to leave the plenum because of a meeting with German Chancellor Schultz during the day.
The coalition was left with only 60 MKs and therefore needed another vote of an MK from the Joint List. But because of the redefinition, they would find it difficult to actively support the law, since it would be supporting the government.
Sa'ar therefore announced that the government is seeking to postpone the vote until next week.
Although the law, which limits the prime minister's term to a maximum continuous period of eight years, is considered by supporters of former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a personal move against him, it will not apply retroactively, which would ostensibly allow Netanyahu to return to another term.
This is "the fourth week in a row in which the government is forced to withdraw laws due to the lack of a majority," Likud Party chairman MK Yariv Levin, an important figure in the opposition, said after the postponement of the vote. "these days, there is no government in Israel. We will replace them."