Associates of haredi leader Rabbi Dov Lando affirm Degel Hatorah MKs will back dissolution unless conditions for Draft Law are secured.
Associates of Lithuanian-haredi leader Rabbi Dov Lando have clarified that Degel Hatorah MKs will maintain their support for dissolving the Knesset unless two core conditions are met: legal agreement and a legislative timetable.
“Degel Hatorah MKs will not receive any other directive today, and therefore the instruction to support the bills to dissolve the Knesset stands,” sources close to Rabbi Lando told Arutz Sheva – Israel National News.
However, they emphasized that “the only thing that could change this decision is reaching an agreement on two basic conditions: First, an agreement on an initial outline with the Knesset’s legal counsel and the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee; and second, setting a clear legislative timetable for passing the Draft law.”
According to the source, without these two conditions being fulfilled, Degel Hatorah MKs will vote in favor of the dissolution bills this evening.
He added that Degel Hatorah MKs are “completely coordinated,” as he put it, with the Shas party’s MKs. “You won’t see a split vote between the two parties this evening,” he said.
Earlier on Wednesday, opposition faction leaders announced a coordinated move to bring the bill for a vote that same day in the Knesset plenum. The decision was made unanimously and binds all opposition factions.
A statement released by the opposition parties noted that, in full coordination, they decided to remove from the agenda all opposition MKs’ private legislation and parliamentary questions, “in order to focus all efforts on one goal: toppling the government.”
Degel Hatorah faction received a ruling from its rabbis, and its MKs will vote in favor of the dissolution due to the lack of progress on the IDF draft law. The hasidic leaders of the Agudat Yisrael faction have also decided to support the bill.
On Tuesday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu summoned Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Yuli Edelstein for a meeting in an attempt to persuade him to support a compromise framework on issues considered red lines by the haredi parties.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu has been engaged in intensive talks with the haredi factions, especially with Shas, which has yet to officially decide whether it will support the dissolution bill.
On Tuesday, Rabbi Moshe Maya, the senior member of Shas’ Council of Torah Sages, signed a letter clarifying that a final decision had not yet been made regarding Shas’ departure from the coalition and whether it will support the vote on the bill to dissolve the Knesset.
