Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, being seasoned politician, is well-aware of the difficulties of running a coalition government of 61, with only a one-vote majority, and on Monday, he received yet another reminder of this. The opposition scored a second victory as it toppled a coalition bill which would compel contractors to provide a guarantee period for their work. The bill was initiated by MK (Kulanu) Roy Folkman and backed by other MKs.

65 MKs backed the bill in its second reading, so there was no reason for the coalition to believe it was going to be toppled in the third/final reading. However, in the third reading, only 37 voted for it and 44 were opposed.

Interestingly, the bill was backed by the chairman of the Knesset Economics Committee, MK (Machen Tzioni) Eitan Cabel, who left the plenum angrily after voting for it. Others commented that it was most unfortunate that the opposition toppled such a bill, which only served to assist consumers nationwide, but they decided to make it political. Had it passed into law, work done by contractors would have to be guaranteed for a year. Only Cabel was willing to cross the ‘opposition’ line and do the correct thing for the bill would have been embraced by Israelis from all political parties.

For the coalition, another embarrassment and a harsh reminder for PM Netanyahu that life with a one-vote majority will not be an easy one until elections, which are scheduled for November 2019.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)