Report: Blue and White to Move on Knesset Committees Immediately

YERUSHALAYIM
Blue and White leader Benny Gantz at a party meeting on Thursday. (Avshalom Shoshoni/Flash90)

Blue and White has big plans for the country if it gets a chance to lead the government – and those plans could begin to form even before a coalition is formed. A report on Channel 13 said that Blue and White is seeking to change the leadership of the top Knesset committees – with the first committee chairman to go being Rabbi Moshe Gafni of United Torah Judaism.

The first session of the 22nd Knesset is on October 3, and with a majority bloc – thanks to the 13 seats of the United Arab List – Blue and White will be able to vote out Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein and replace him with a Blue and White MK. If the Arabs vote with Blue and White, the 8 votes of Yisrael Beytenu will not be needed.

Once the Knesset Speaker is changed, the door will be open to changing committee assignments. While the Knesset has not been in session since it was dispersed in May, the Knesset committees have been operating normally. Blue and White seeks to replace the heads of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, the Knesset Control Committee, and the Finance Committee – with the latter first on the agenda, Channel 13 reported. After those, other targets will include the Education Committee and several others whose heads were appointed after the April elections.

The Knesset committees are essentially in charge of running the country until a government is formed, administering the budget for ministries. The committees would continue to function with their new leaders until a government is formed, even if new elections were to be called in the event that one could not be formed in the current Knesset.

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