Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz left a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in anger on Wednesday after criticism of Gantz by Transportation Minister Miri Regev in an interview was published.
Regev told Yediot Aharonot that “Gantz is still half baked” and “not ready yet.” In an effort to ease the dispute, the Likud released a statement afterward saying the election campaign is over and both sides needed to stop attacking each other.
Netanyahu later spoke to Regev and scolded her for “harming unity.”
The interview angered Gantz because he got all the MKs in his faction to remain silent after Netanyahu’s criminal trial began on Sunday. Speaking to a meeting of his Blue and White faction in the Knesset on Wednesday, Gantz said the rule of law of law will be preserved, and his party has the tools to ensure it.
“Just like Israel needs a functioning government, it needs a strong and independent legal system,” Gantz said.
Responding to criticism that he and his party’s MKs have not condemned Netanyahu, he said: “We will be judged by our deeds, not words.”
Gantz gained a boost on Wednesday when the Knesset plenum voted 66 to 42 to advance the expanded Norwegian Law in a preliminary reading. The bill will still have to go to the Knesset Law Committee and then back for two more readings in the Knesset plenum before it becomes law.
The bill, which was postponed a week ago, would enable five ministers in Blue and White and two in other coalition parties to quit the Knesset and be replaced by the next candidates on each party’s list. If the ministers quit the cabinet, they could return to the Knesset at the expense of the new MKs.
A separate bill would give new MKs in factions that have split 24 hours to decide which one to join. The bill could allow candidates of Yesh Atid and Telem, which are in the opposition, to instead join Blue and White in the coalition.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid blasted the coalition for saying that the first bill passed by the new government does not create jobs for unemployed Israelis but instead unnecessary political patronage positions. He said the coalition had made the people of Israel their “ATM.”
Lapid formally became head of the opposition on Wednesday morning, following an official announcement by Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin.
As head of the opposition, Lapid will receive regular security briefings from Netanyahu and top security officials. By protocol, he will meet with visiting heads of state. He will have an enlarged staff and be protected by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency).
Following a tradition from the British House of Commons, the office of the opposition leader is the farthest from the Knesset plenum.