MESOPOTAMIA NEWS ISRAEL: SOON THE TROUBLE STARTS ! -WillKnesset Speaker Yariv Levin get voted out?

Yamina MK Nir Orbach said he did not support the request and asked that his signature be withdrawn.

By GIL HOFFMAN   JERUSALEM POST  – JUNE 3, 2021 21:20

The 61 MKs due to make up the new coalition on Thursday submitted a formal request to Secretary of the Knesset, Yardena Muller-Horowitz, to begin the process of replacing Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin.

The MKs took the step to facilitate the formation of a government as soon as possible. Sources close to Levin have said he would only allow a vote of confidence in the new government at the last possible date permitted by law in order to increase pressure on Yamina MKs to vote against the government.

MK Nir Orbach of the Yamina Party said he did not support the request to remove Levin and that his signature was added without his knowledge and asked that it be withdrawn. Without Orbach, the coalition would not have the 61 MKs needed to unseat Levin.

“Naftali [Bennett] and I have been on a strong partnership together for many years now,” Orbach said on Thursday, adding that he joined Yamina under Bennett’s leadership “with a long-term perspective on the future of the State of Israel.”

“I will do all I can to ensure it will succeed,” Orbach said about the new government after his meeting with Bennett

N12 reported that Yamina will not support switching out a Knesset Speaker before the new government is sworn in.

Another way to gain the required 61 signatures would be to rely on the Joint List, but 61 MKs would also be needed to secure a confidence vote in the new government and the Joint List has said it would oppose this.

There is also a legal dispute whether the latest date Levin wants as the deadline for a vote would be next Wednesday, seven days after the coalition was formed, or the Monday after that, seven days after the coalition’s formation must be declared in the Knesset plenum.

Replacing Levin would enable a new Knesset Speaker to bring the confidence vote at the earliest possible date, this Monday.

The coalition’s candidate for the position is expected to be Mickey Levy of Yesh Atid.

“We want to be rid of Yariv Levin as Knesset Speaker,” tweeted Joint List MK Aida Touma-Sliman on Thursday.

“Ridding ourselves of Mr. Netanyahu means ridding ourselves of his politics and his manners,” she added, “so all of his public servants must go.”

“Levin is Netanyahu’s operational executor, and disgraces his position as Knesset Speaker in doing so,” Joint List MK Ofer Cassif added.

“A man like him, who has called to undo a ruling of the High Court of Justice, presents an immediate threat to the independence of the parliament. We will urgently push for his replacement.”