A day after Yamina MK Idit Silman broke ranks with the government and announced that she was resigning as coalition chairwoman, the renegade lawmaker told Times of Israel that she did this purely on principle and not because of a quid pro quo.
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"I woke up at 2 a.m. on Tuesday morning, spoke with only one person on this matter – my good friend who doesn't deal with politics – and then I told myself, 'This is the moment,'" she told the Israeli news outlet. "I spoke with MK Yariv Levin (from Likud) and that's it, my actions were mine alone, and I surprised everyone, including [opposition leader] Benjamin Netanyahu, everyone was shocked but I was at peace with myself,."
Silman dismissed reports that offers of future portfolios in a Likud-led government sealed the deal for her defection. "I got zero promises for the future; there are no agreements," she said. "In fact, I have been offered many things so that I stay [in the coalition], including to replace Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz, but I will not be tempted."
She also played down the recent spat she had with Horowitz over the issue of Passover observance in hospitals, saying this was not the reason she left the coalition. "It's the other things that are important. Passover was just the final blow; the whole range of things that were threatening to erode the Jewish character of the state was what mattered to us, this is truly what got to me, and I saw it time and again," she lamented, adding that she was also dismayed by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett referring to Judea and Samaria as the West Bank.
She denied outright the reports that Netanyahu had promised her a spot on the Likud candidate list for the next Knesset election. "There is no such deal, although the Likud has offered me everything. There is no opportunism on my part, I had a great job (as coalition chairwoman)."
Silman's decision means that the current Bennett-led government no longer controls the Knesset, making it vritually impossible to pass any meaningful legislation. If the opposition gets one more defector it will outnumber the coalition and could theoretically call an early election, although it is unclear if all of its factions would support such a measure, especially the Joint Arab List, which does not share the ideological views of the Right.
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