Israel’s Coalition Suffers Further Setback As Bid To Reinstate Matan Kahana As Religious Affairs Minister Fails

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Israel’s rickety coalition suffered a further setback, demonstrating its inability at present to function or pass legislation. Early Tuesday morning an attempt to reinstate Yamina MK Matan Kahana as religious affairs minister was thwarted, with fellow party MK Idit Silman casting the deciding vote to block the appointment.

Silman defected from the government last month and has declared she will vote against it but this was the first time she cast a key vote against the coalition since she resigned. Earlier in the evening, Silman absented herself from a critical vote on a bill to renew the Judea and Samaria law, a bill that also failed to pass.

The final tally for Kahana’s unsuccessful reappointment was 55 for to 55 against, one short of the simple majority to return him to his ministerial post. Prime Minister Bennett requested that the vote should also be a motion of confidence in the coalition but despite this the motion didn’t pass.

Kahana, a former F-16 pilot, responded philosophically to the upset, tweeting that it was “a light strike on the wing.”

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who leads Kahana and Silman’s Yamina party, had requested that the vote on Kahana’s appointment twin as a motion of confidence in the coalition.

The coalition will likely take steps against Silman for voting against the government, including removing her from the Knesset’s Health Committee which she currently heads. Moreover she may face the same fate as Amichai Shikli, the member of her party who did not join the government last year. Shikli has been formally labelled a defector, meaning that he cannot run in the next elections with an existing Knesset faction.

Kahana resigned his ministry in May in order to return as a voting member of Knesset under the so-called “Norwegian Law,” which permits ministers to be replaced by another party member upon taking up their ministerial posts. At that point Yemina were concerned that Kahana’s replacement in the Knesset, Yom Tov Halfon, would also defect to the opposition and give them a majority which would enable them to immediately topple the government. Currently there is a 60-60 tie in the Knesset between the government and the opposition.

In the meantime, the ministerial portfolio has temporarily moved under Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Kahana has served as deputy religious affairs minister, a position he will retain if the government continues to function. However it is unlikely that any of Kahana’s legislative initiatives will be implemented during this period.