Likud, Blue and White Back Compromise to Avoid Fourth Elections

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu tends to agree to a compromise proposal in negotiations between his Likud party and Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party, thus reducing the chances of the elections that were perhaps to have been called Monday at midnight, due to the state budget not being approved.

According to details published by Channel 12 News commentator Amit Segal, the compromise is led by MK Zvi Hauser, according to which the budget will be postponed for several months and the appointment of senior members of the judiciary will be pushed off for the meantime.

Negotiating teams of the two parties spoke late Motzoei Shabbos in an effort to reach an agreement in time for Sunday’s meeting of the Knesset Finance Committee, which is set to vote on the final readings of Hauser’s bill to postpone the deadline for passing the state budget from Monday to December.

According to the report, all coalition members would support the Hauser Law for a 100-day postponement of the dissolution of the Knesset, which has already been approved in a preliminary reading, by giving another extension to the budget approval.

During these 100 days, a budget and the Arrangements Law will be agreed upon to stabilize the Israeli economy, and the significant addition for the chareidi public is that by then government ministries will be given a certain percentage increase in the budget, to be agreed on between the parties.

In this way, the chareidi parties will be able to obtain the NIS 400 million that are missing from the budget of the yeshivos, which hasn’t been transferred to the yeshivos because it does not appear in the base budget, unlike other areas.

In addition, a committee will be immediately set up to examine senior appointments, which the parties to the coalition agreement have committed to, but until its conclusions are reached, the existing situation will continue to be frozen, when senior appointments in the law enforcement system are not made.

At the same time, it will be agreed to focus on addressing the security challenges facing the borders in the south and north, as well as continuing the battle against the coronaviurus.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi, number two in Blue and White, said on Motzoei Shabbos that “Netanyahu has 48 hours to recover, and to prove whether the public’s good is in front of his eyes or his personal good.”

In response, there was a sharp attack from the Likud, which said in a statement: “Gabi Ashkenazi continues to be a tireless subversive. Until the last minute, Ashkenazi continues to make every effort to drag Israel into the elections and to oust Gantz.”