Knesset Committee Confirms: New Gov’t to Be Formed Sunday

The Knesset Arrangements Committee voted 17-0 on Wednesday morning to set the procedures for Sunday’s vote of confidence in a new government that is set to replace Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

The session will begin at 4 p.m. (local time).

Incoming Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Incoming Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid and Netanyahu will speak at the special session on Sunday.

Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin will be replaced by Yesh Atid MK Mickey Levy at the same session.

In the stormy meeting, Likud MK Galit Distal Atbaryan called Bennett and New Hope leader Gideon Sa’ar opportunists and parasites.

Meanwhile, Sa’ar, who is slated to be the justice minister in the next government, has been assigned a security detail following threats to harm him over his decision to join the center-left coalition.

The decision follows what the Shin Bet says is a dramatic increase in the number of online death threats made against public officials involved in the efforts to unseat Netanyahu.

The Shin Bet has already increased the protection afforded to Bennett and his No. 2, MK Ayelet Shaked, citing the growing threats against them over Yamina’s decision to join Lapid’s coalition.

The threat assessment pertaining to their security stands at Level 5 – just one level shy of the gravest possible threat.

Yamina MKs Nir Orbach and Idit Silman also received death threats after they refused to yield to pressure to vote against their party’s decision to join the coalition-in-the-making.

Both have received security details until further notice, Knesset Security Chief Maj. Gen. Moshe Griff said on Sunday.

Meretz MK Tamar Zandberg and Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman have also received death threats.