Netanyahu puppeteering government's collapse to avoid cross-examination in trial

Yahoo

4 days ago

Sources within ultra-Orthodox parties told Kan News that Netanyahu is attempting to puppeteer the government's collapse to delay his cross-examination as part of his trial.
Ultra-Orthodox parties have threatened to dissolve the government in recent weeks because Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted to delay his cross-examination as part of his trial, a senior official in the ultra-Orthodox parties told Kan News on Tuesday.
"Based on this, we threatened to dissolve the government after the Shavuot holiday," the senior official said. "In recent days, we received a message that things would continue as normal, and now we are stuck," he added.
Several haredi rabbis instructed parties in the coalition to leave the government, and Shas is expected to support a motion to dissolve the Knesset, The Jerusalem Post reported on Wednesday.
Netanyahu is expected to lead a meeting on Thursday afternoon that Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein will also attend, in addition to Shas MK Ariel Attias and Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fox, the Prime Minister's Office confirmed.
Edelstein addressed the developments in a post on X/Twitter on Wednesday, writing that he did not support dissolving the Knesset and that he was seeking a solution.
'I am not in favor of disbanding the coalition or dissolving the government, and I do not share in the hatred of our haredi brothers,' he wrote.
Sources in the ultra-Orthodox parties told Kan News that theUnited Torah Judaism Knesset members would ultimately not withdraw from the coalition.
"If we go to elections over this crisis, they'll come after us. In the best-case scenario, we'll end up with the same government," the sources said.
Eliav Breuer contributed to this report.