In 10 days, Netanyahu will have to inform President Yitzhak Herzog “alah bidi”. From the moment of the announcement, the new government can be satisfied within 7 days.
In the time frame that Netanyahu has left – 17 days, there are essential issues that he must resolve: electing a chairman, promoting the lightning legislation of the ‘Deri Law’ and the ‘Ben Gabir Law’ – and ending the distribution of cases within his party.
Tomorrow (Monday) the Knesset plenum will vote on the replacement of the speaker – and according to a report by senior political commentator Amit Segal on News 12, MK Yariv Levin will be temporarily appointed to the position.
According to Segal, after it appeared that MK Dodi Amsalem was the leading candidate for the position, at the end of a weekend of consultations, the competition was reopened, and the name of MK Ofir Akunis came up again as a candidate for the position – but in the end it was decided that Levin would be appointed to the position temporarily.
It should be emphasized that Netanyahu has not yet chosen who will be the one to be elected to the position of permanent speaker of the Knesset, and it seems that the choice will be made from three candidates – Knesset members David Amsalem, Amir Ohana and Ofir Akunis. The decision will almost certainly indicate who will enter the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, since if Ohana does not accept the position of Speaker of the Knesset, he will most likely be appointed to the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs.
The appointment of the permanent chairman will be postponed two weeks to the day when Netanyahu will announce to his 31 members of the Likud faction who will receive a ministerial position and which – and who will receive nothing.
As every Monday, the Knesset Secretariat will publish the legislative schedule for that week: the priorities will be the ‘Deri Law’, the ‘Ben Gabir Law’, the amendment to the law that will allow Smotritz to have more powers in the position of minister in the Ministry of Defense and the ‘Splitting Law’.
Due to the tight schedule, and since the opposition will do everything to delay the approval of the laws, the focus will be mainly on the first three laws, while the ‘split law’ will probably be rejected after the government is sworn in.
The split law is a law passed by the Bennet-Lapid government, which allows 4 MKs to split from their party, hoping to annex rebels from the Likud. Netanyahu, who fears the retirement of 4 MKs who will not be satisfied with the positions he will offer them, hoped to return the law to its original state and allow a split only if it is a third of the members of the faction, but it seems that the tight schedule will not allow this, and the vote on changing the law will again take place after the government is sworn in.
Besides electing the chairman and blitzing the legislation, Netanyahu also needs to finish and distribute the files to his party members – not an easy process at all.