Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's governing coalition blocked an effort to recommend a probe of the Submarine Affair by the State Comptroller in the Knesset's State Control Committee.
Committee chairman Ofer Shelah spoke of the need to investigate Netanyahu's role in the affair. Coalition chairman Miki Zohar (Likud) lashed out at Shelah and suggested he be replaced as chairman of the committee.
The proposal fell by a vote of seven to three.
The Justice Ministry announced criminal charges in December against Netanyahu’s lawyer, a former top aide and an ex-Israel Navy chief, over a $2 billion purchase of submarines from Germany. Netanyahu was questioned by police but is not a suspect in the long-running investigation into suspicions that the local agent for the vessels’ builder, ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems, part of the ThyssenKrupp Group, paid bribes to Israeli officials.
Reuters contributed to this report