Regarding Shas's departure from the government coalition, he said he lost patience long ago with these games. He said government could complete serve out its term but there is no such thing as being in the coalition while not being in it, and the coalition failing to pass laws, there is a country that requires governance. There is no such thing as continuing to control ministries remotely through associates while actually being outside, he noted.

Video: Smotrich speaks about Saudi normalization / Credit: GoLive

He said that he told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, "Either succeed in resolving the conscription issue with a genuine law and change the abnormal reality that Haredim do not participate in army service, or go to elections. This story must end quickly.​"

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Fewer and fewer in the Coalition believe that they will be able to pass both the IDF draft law to the satisfaction of the ultra-Orthodox parties as well as the judicial selection committee bill and survive the winter session. 

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This includes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who is reportedly working on a compromise that would involve the postponement of the controversial judicial bill in order to attempt to build broad consensus. 

This would be a politically painful compromise for right-wing voters who elected the current government into power to bring about a change in the judiciary and restore the balance between the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. 

Haredi parties also urge Netanyahu to postpone the legislation, although their reason behind the push is the desire to focus on the conscription bill that would grant blanket exemptions from military service to yeshiva students. 

As such, Netanyahu is surrounded by partners and ministers urging him to rethink the judicial reform timeline, including Likud members urging him to postpone the bill to calm the winds. 

"We gave Justice Minister Yariv Levin seven months to devote to the judicial reform, at the expense of our own ministries. Now it's his turn to slow down a bit," a source in the Likud told Israel Hayom. 

Netanyahu is concerned, however, that the move might cause instability within the Coalition. 

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich have both vowed to see the reform through, leaving little room for maneuver. The two even threatened to leave the Coalition if the process is hindered. 

It is unlikely, however, that the two will follow through on their threats as according to polls, if another national election is held, they would end up on the benches of the Opposition. 

Levin, in turn, said he would step down as justice minister if the reform was not promoted. He did not, however, say whether he would leave the Likud or endanger the Coalition in any other way. 

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As negotiations continue over the highly contested judicial reform, the Coalition offered this week to postpone making changes to the judicial selection committee by a year, Israel Hayom has learned.

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Senior Coalition members involved in the talks – led by President Isaac Herzog – said that in exchange, the Opposition were asked to consent to other components of the legislation, such as the one pertaining to the attorney general and reasonableness.

Some of the bills are expected to pass already in the current summer session, and the rest in the next, winter session.

It is unclear whether the proposal will be accepted as the Opposition has asked the Coalition to refrain from making any changes in this regard during the current, 25th Knesset, at all.

According to Knesset rules, the Coalition will announce this week the votes to appoint the Knesset representatives to the judicial selection committee in its old format.

The elections will be held in two weeks, on June 15. The president is said to be working intensively to reach a deal by then.

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After the passing of the state budget, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be required to return to an issue that has been on hold for two months – the judicial reform and negotiations over the controversial legislation led by President Isaac Herzog.

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After a long series of talks between the parties, the situation is starting to become clearer.

The Opposition is ready to compromise on one component of the reform, the law pertaining to the attorney general, which will allow MKs to receive private representation in petitions rather than being represented by the attorney general.

In exchange, the committee for the selection of judges will convene in its current format, without any changes, and the Coalition will pledge not to make any changes to it during the current government. In addition, they will also pledge not to promote any legal-administrative measures without consensus.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Chair of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee Simcha Rotman, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, and other Coalition members are pushing to pass at least some of the bills during the current summer session, even if doing so would constitute a unilateral move.

Netanyahu will need to decide whether to comply with the demand of his Coalition partners or the Opposition. If he decides on the former, he will draw the ire of the Opposition, who might go back on any promises of a compromise and call for the reform to be stopped completely. If the chooses the latter, he will be risking the safety of his Coalition as members threatened to leave unless the judicial reform is promoted further.

Political officials understand that reaching a decision and a breakthrough in the talks in the near future is vital.

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Netanyahu on Wednesday reaffirmed his commitment to reaching a compromise on the legislation.

"We will of course continue with our efforts to arrive at a broad consensus agreement, to the extent possible, on the issue of judicial reform," he said in a video message published to social media. "I believe with goodwill and real will it's possible to come to agreements that will serve all citizens of Israel."

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government on Tuesday prepared to pass a new budget – a step that could bring some stability to his Coalition following a rocky start.

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While the passage of the budget could buy Netanyahu some quiet inside the Coalition, it also was expected to deepen the divisions in Israel. Critics have accused Netanyahu of increasing spending on his ultra-Orthodox allies for religious programs.

Ahead of the late-night vote, Netanyahu rejected the criticism.

"We are passing a reasonable budget, a budget that stays in bounds," he said. "To our colleagues in the Opposition: don't get your hopes up. This government will last its full four years."

The vote, approved on Wednesday with a majority of 64 votes, approved a budget through 2024, giving Netanyahu up to two years of quiet after weeks of tense negotiations with his Coalition partners.

"It's a very important moment," said Yohanan Plesner, a former lawmaker who is now president of the Israel Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem think tank. "It gives Netanyahu a reasonable projection for stability for the upcoming months, and perhaps year and a half."

Netanyahu formed the Coalition last year after the country's fifth election in under four years. That election, like its predecessors, was largely a referendum on Netanyahu's fitness to rule while facing corruption charges. The government took office in late December and almost immediately found itself mired in controversy, both at home and with its allies abroad.

A plan to reform the country's judicial system has triggered months of mass protests and raised concerns overseas. Proponents say the measures are needed to rein in an overzealous Supreme Court, but critics say the plan would destroy the country's system of checks and balances.

Meanwhile, the Coalition's commitment to expanding settlements in Judea and Samaria and east Jerusalem have angered allies.

The new budget has been criticized for allocating nearly $4 billion in discretionary funds, much of it for ultra-Orthodox and pro-settler parties. That will include increases in controversial stipends for ultra-Orthodox men to study full time in religious seminaries instead of working or serving in the military, which is compulsory for most secular males. It also includes more money for ultra-Orthodox schools, which are widely criticized for not teaching students skills like math and English needed in the modern workplace.

The funds also include tens of millions of dollars for pro-settler parties to promote pet projects through the ministries they control. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a settler leader, has said he hopes to double the population of Judea and Samaria settlers in the coming years.

The government's composition and agenda have deeply divided the country. On Tuesday, several thousand flag-waving Israelis protested outside the parliament building against the budget.

"The budget is not allocated for building bridges, or building schools, or supporting higher education," said Evyatar Erell, a protester. "It is devoted entirely for purposes that will serve nothing at all to promote the growth and development of Israel in the future."

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Scores of prominent economists this week signed a letter warning that the budget will cause "significant and long-term damage" to the economy by including incentives for the ultra-Orthodox to avoid the work force.

"The budget that the government is raising today is devastating," Opposition Leader Yair Lapid said on Twitter. "There is no reform that will improve the state of the economy, there are no engines of growth, there is no fight against the cost of living, there is only endless extortion."

While the budget vote buys Netanyahu some quiet, that may be short lived. The mass protests led prime minister to put the judicial overhaul plan on hold. But he could now face pressure from his partners to revive the plan.

If Netanyahu moves forward with the legislation, he could once again see his poll numbers slip and come under pressure from within his ruling Likud Party to cancel it. But if he calls off the plan, the hardline partners who have spearheaded the plan could threaten to leave the Coalition.

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Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, whose dismissal by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brought the country's constitutional crisis to a boil, is staying in office until further notice, aides said on Tuesday, suggesting government indecision on how to proceed.

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Beset by three months of unprecedented protests against his Coalition's signature plan to reform the judiciary, Netanyahu on Monday hit the pause button and called for compromise negotiations with the Opposition.

"Our goal is to reach agreements," he said in a pre-Passover toast to his staff, likening the crisis to a squabble among family gathered for the Jewish festival that begins next week.

But prospects appeared clouded. The Opposition, citing the continued presence of the highly contested bill on parliament's line-up, threatened to boycott any talks should it proceed.

"The walls of suspicion and hostility are higher than ever," President Isaac Herzog, who has offered to mediate between the sides, lamented in a speech.

Herzog was set to hold a first meeting with the delegations on Tuesday, his office said.

The suspension of the reforms stabilized Israel's shaken economy and was welcomed by Western powers. Foreign Minister Eli Cohen told Reuters he was launching a diplomatic outreach aimed at reburnishing Israel's democratic credentials internationally.

However, questions lingered about Netanyahu's credibility – including in his own camp – after open dissent by some senior Likud party colleagues.

Among these was Gallant, who on Saturday broke rank by openly calling for a halt to the legislation in the name of preventing anti-reform protests from spreading in the IDF. A day later, Netanyahu said he was firing Gallant.

Ordinarily, that termination would have gone into effect on Tuesday, but Gallant aides said he never got the notification letter formally required to begin the 48-hour countdown to his removal from office and was continuing to work.

Asked whether Gallant was being kept on or replaced, spokespeople for Netanyahu and Likud had no immediate comment.

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Another member of Knesset said Thursday she was quitting the ruling coalition, leaving embattled Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in control of a crumbling minority government.

Meretz lawmaker Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi's announcement further whittles away Bennett's hold on Israel's 120-seat parliament, reducing the coalition to 59 seats. Two other legislators from his own party have already bolted.

Rinawie Zoabi's departure further raises the possibility of new parliamentary elections, less than a year after the government took office. While Bennett's government remains in power, it is now even more hamstrung in parliament and will likely struggle to function.

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In a letter to Bennett, Rinawie Zoabi said she was leaving the coalition because she said it too often adopted nationalist positions on issues of importance to her constituents, Arab citizens of Israel.

She cited Israel's conduct at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque, which in recent weeks has been the site of clashes between police and protesters, as well as continued settlement building and the action by police to quell rioting pallbearers at the funeral of a well-known Al Jazeera journalist shot while covering confrontations between Israeli forces and Palestinians.

"Enough. I cannot continue to support a coalition that in such a shameful way hounds the society from which I came," she wrote.

Bennett, who leads a small, hard-line nationalist party, heads an unwieldy coalition of eight ideologically diverse factions – from dovish ones that support Palestinian statehood to nationalist parties and even, for the first time in Israeli history, an Islamist Arab party. They came together last June with little in common other than their drive to oust former leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who now heads the opposition.

As part of their union, the parties agreed to set aside divisive issues, like Palestinian statehood, and focus instead on topics such as the coronavirus pandemic and the economy. Despite the differences among the coalition, it has managed to pass a budget, navigate the pandemic and strengthen relations with both the Biden administration and Israel's Arab allies.

But a wave of Israeli-Palestinian tensions, set off by several deadly Palestinian attacks against Israel and Israeli arrest raids, and fueled by repeated clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters at Al-Aqsa, has shaken the coalition's stability. Mansour Abbas, the head of the Islamist party, briefly suspended his faction's membership in the coalition over the events, before rejoining shortly after.

Israel on Wednesday said it would allow a Jewish flag parade to snake through the heart of the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City, as is the case every year on Jerusalem Day.

Bennett's coalition recently lost its own whip, Idit Silman, who said her nationalist values were being challenged under the diverse grouping.

Bennett took steps following Silman's departure to shore up the coalition and punish defectors, but another deserter raises questions about the union's stability and how much longer it can hang on before crumbling entirely.

To topple the government, opposition lawmakers would need to secure 61 votes in favor of dissolving parliament or forming an alternate governing coalition.

Some opposition members appear to oppose new elections, and it seems unlikely for the time being that Netanyahu has enough support to bring the government down.

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German Social Democrat Olaf Scholz said on Wednesday he had reached a coalition deal to form a new government that will try to modernize Europe's largest economy and bring the curtain down on the Angela Merkel era.

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Scholz's center-left Social Democrats (SPD), the ecologist Greens, and the libertarian Free Democrats (FDP) want to accelerate the transition to a green economy and digitization while maintaining fiscal discipline, according to a 177-page agreement.

The alliance – named a traffic-light coalition after the three parties' respective colors – has a majority in the lower house of parliament and hopes the government will be sworn in early next month after the parties ratify the coalition pact.

The first alliance at a federal level between the ideologically disparate parties will end 16 years of Merkel-led conservative government, marking a new era for relations with Europe and the rest of the world.

Merkel leaves big shoes to fill. She has navigated Germany and Europe through multiple crises and been a champion of liberal democracy in the face of rising authoritarianism worldwide.

Her critics say she has managed rather than solved problems and leaves her successor tough decisions on many fronts.

Scholz's incoming government faces immediate challenges, with Europe grappling with the fallout from Brexit, a crisis on the European Union's border with Belarus, and surging COVID-19 cases.

While Germany's electoral campaign was largely focused on domestic issues, the coalition pact shed light on the next government's foreign policy priorities.

The parties agreed to strengthen the EU's economic and monetary union and signaled an openness to reform the bloc's fiscal rules, also known as the Stability and Growth Pact.

They also agreed Germany would remain part of NATO's nuclear sharing agreement, a move that will prevent a rift in the Western military alliance at a time of rising tensions with Russia.

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In recent months, the possibility of bringing the ultra-Orthodox parties into the Bennett-Lapid governing coalition has met with an unequivocal answer from Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beytenu), who has said, "It's them or me."

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The Haredi parties, meanwhile, are saying they have no interest in joining the government.

However, high-ranking government officials say that the new political situation created following the passage of the state budget could make cooperation a possibility.

Recently, relations between the coalition and the Haredi parties have seen a few interesting milestones. For example, although Lieberman and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid have both spoken about the need to make major cuts to the budgets allocated to the Haredi, the money for haredi yeshivas in the state budget remains high, at 1.71 billion shekels ($550 million), only 5% less than the sum for the same purpose in the previous budget.

The same senior officials discussed a few options that have been floated, some of which are more realistic than others. While they think that the chances of both Shas and United Torah Judaism joining the coalition are slim, perhaps one of the two parties might join.

Another possibility would be to identify individual members of United Torah Judaism who are interested in working with the government.

The officials said that the best and most realistic scenario would be for the government to start working with the Haredi parties without them joining the coalition.

"The Haredi public has needs. Yeshivas, institutions, daycare centers, and every aspect of life. It can't neglect them for three and a half years because they are tied to Benjamin Netanyahu. It would be better for the Haredim themselves to find ways of cooperating and taking care of their public," one government official said.

The government has stressed that currently, there are no ongoing talks with the Haredi parties or with Lieberman, but that it expects the matter to come up again in the next few months.

Meanwhile, UTJ MK Yisrael Eichler said in a recent interview to the Haredi news outlet Kikar Hashabbat: "We put our future in Netanyahu's delusions four times. He was deluding us all the time. After he lost the first election [in 2019], we should have told him, 'You need to go, admit the fact that you've lost.'"

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Right-wing Knesset members expressed outrage Tuesday after the government allocated 12 million shekels ($3.8 million) to tackle Israel's stray cat problem.

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"There is not enough funds for soldiers, for families in need, but there is one for cats," a bewildered Noam MK Avi Maoz said. "Shame on the government, Israelis deserve better, they deserve a different government."

The new funding was announced at the request of Yesh Atid. On top of that, the party managed to secure funding totaling NIS 41 million ($13 million) to fund early childhood programs, youth athletic projects, and the government's Child Online Protection Bureau as well.

The funds were approved as part of the coalition agreements that made the current government possible and are subject to approval by the Knesset as part of the overall state budget.

Altogether the Finance Committee has allocated NIS 736 million ($230 million) in coalition funds for education, anti-drug programs, culture, special needs, tourism, Torah-study and more.

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