Israeli Opposition Parties Reported Planning to Oust Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana Nov. 10
A vote on the day the new Knesset is sworn in would be the first test of a majority that needs Arab party votes, and Avigdor Liberman has not committed to it.
Learn more ›JERUSALEM, Israel —
Israeli opposition parties plan to remove Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana of Likud soon after the 26th Knesset is sworn in on Nov. 10, Israeli media reported. Channel 12 analyst Barak Seri said Friday, Oct. 30, that a deal had been reached and that the vote would likely come the same day, The Times of Israel reported.
See where this is ›The parties opposed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are Yashar, B'Yachad, The Democrats and Yisrael Beytenu. Together with the Arab-led Joint List and Ra'am, they hold 67 of the Knesset's 120 seats. All Israel News put the Netanyahu-led bloc at 53 seats after the Oct. 27 election.
No replacement has been formally named. Kan reported that the parties are considering former Prime Minister Yair Lapid, the No. 2 in B'Yachad.
Democrats chairman Yair Golan said on Channel 12 that a new speaker would come first, followed by new heads of Knesset committees and a state commission of inquiry into the Hamas-led massacre of Oct. 7, 2023. Golan also rejected a unity government with Likud, calling Netanyahu “a national security risk.”
Learn more ›The plan depends in part on Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman, who Kan reported is reluctant to work with the Arab parties whose votes are needed. Liberman wrote on Facebook on Oct. 30, “We will not sit with supporters of terrorism!” and said his party would not be part of a coalition relying on such support. Other opposition leaders have asked his party to abstain, which would still leave a simple majority to replace Ohana, The Times of Israel reported.
Channel 12 reported that Liberman and Lapid would meet as early as Saturday to discuss the matter. Golan said he met on Thursday, Oct. 29, with Yashar leader Gadi Eisenkot, Lapid and Ra'am chairman Mansour Abbas. He has proposed that Ra'am join a coalition, that the Joint List support it from outside, and that Arab parties hold no security cabinet seats. The opposition parties hold 48 seats on their own, 13 short of the 61 needed to govern; Ra'am would bring them to 56, and the Joint List holds 11 more.
See where this is ›What we don't know yet: Who the opposition's candidate for speaker will be, how Liberman's party will vote, and whether the Liberman-Lapid meeting has taken place. The reported deal rests on Israeli media accounts, and the articles we reviewed carried no response from Ohana or Likud.
