Coalition Backs Gantz Pension Bill, Ending Boycott

The Bennett-Lapid coalition survived another crisis on Monday as the disgruntled party got what it wanted.

Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party ended its week-long boycott of coalition bills after passage of a substantial increase in pensions for senior IDF officers by a vote of 57-56 in its first reading in the Knesset plenum.

Likud MK Shomo Karhi decried passage of the bill, saying they were “giving away 1.5 billion shekels in taxpayer funds to Gantz’s friends.”

To be sure, Defense Minister Gantz and friends did not get all they wanted. The vote was the result of a compromise reached in a meeting of Gantz, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and the two main opponents of the bill, Labor leader Merav Michaeli and Deputy Minister Abir Kara (Yamina).

“I am glad that we have reached an agreement that the pensions law will undergo significant revisions in a joint Labor and Welfare and Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee,” Michaeli said.

“I thank the defense minister and his team for their willingness to make changes, for working together, and for the agreements already reached and those we will reach for the welfare of those who serve in the IDF.”

Mansour Abbas and the other MKs of his Ra’am (United Arab List) party voted for the bill. Blue and White apparently learned from Ra’am, which has repeatedly threatened to leave the coalition unless its bills are passed.