Liberman at faction meeting
Liberman at faction meetingHezki Baruch

The Yisrael Beytenu faction convened at a faction meeting on Thursday, at the end of which the party spokesman said that the faction had decided to promote two laws.

The first is the law limiting the tenure of a prime minister to two terms. The second is the law that prevents an MK facing an indictment from being tasked with forming a government.

The decision is a clear signal from Liberman that, even after the current round of elections, he will not enable Prime Minister Netanyahu to form a new government.

MK Ayman Odeh, chairman of the Joint List faction, responded to the announcement, saying, "Interesting. This is a new situation, we will consider the consequences."

Blue and White officials noted that in order to advance the law, which Liberman today announced he would support, it would be necessary to elect a new Knesset Speaker from White Blue instead of Yuli Edelstein. The candidate is MK Meir Cohen.

Earlier on Thursday, MK Ofer Shelah criticized Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, making it clear that his party would not hesitate to cooperate with the Joint Arab List to prevent him from forming a government.

"Netanyahu's statement yesterday that he won the election because the Joint Arab List doesn't count is his official declaration of war on the Jewish and democratic state of Israel," Shelah said.

He asserted that while for Israel's founding fathers, "the Arabs and other non-Zionists [were] equal citizens, in the 'State of Netanyahu' they have no right to vote, be represented, or participate in the democratic game."

"There's a majority in the new Knesset for the State of Israel and against the State of Netanyahu," Shelah added. "We will work without hesitation to decide the campaign for the image of our country. And every person in the Netanyahu bloc who heard it yesterday and doesn't express deep shock at what he said, should know that from yesterday, he's on the wrong side of the campaign."