MK Yisrael Eichler (United Torah Judaism) criticized the proposed new government, which will be led jointly by Yesh Atid Chairman MK Yair Lapid and Yamina Chairman MK Naftali Bennett.
Speaking at the Knesset plenum, Eichler said: "A few weeks ago, I and my friend Deputy Minister Rabbi [Meir] Porush sent a letter to the Prime Minister, offering him in a friendly manner and with great appreciation for his hard work, to announce that anyone who can garner the support of 61 right-wing Knesset members will be first in the rotation for the position of prime minister. Under this proposal, Netanyahu would serve now as the Alternate Prime Minister, and only afterwards take the position of prime minister."
"It's a real shame that he offered this only last night, but now it's already too late. And that's terrible, because a government will be formed here which on one hand has many feet and will not survive long, but we are going to place in it as Finance Minister a man who announced that he wants to throw us into the garbage dumps using wheelbarrows. And he will be Finance Minister?!
He added: "We're always talking here about purity of character, and in the end we give the Finance Committee to the Finance Minister. For sixteen years there wasn't a situation in Israel in which the Finance Minister and the Finance Committee Chairman were from the same party, and a sectorial party with just seven seats at that. The entire job of the Knesset is to criticize the government and supervise it. Here the Finance Minister will receive the power to supervise himself - he will control the Finance Committee as well."
"I turn to those people forming the new government: Where are your brains? How can you allow the Knesset to be neutralized and give the Finance Committee to the Finance Minister?
"We made it through the [Ariel] Sharon-Lapid government, we made it through the Bennett-Lapid government, and we will make it through this government as well, with G-d's help. G-d will fight for you, and you shall be silent; 'they bent and fell, and we stood up and were encouraged,'" he concluded.