Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Thursday at a ceremony in memory of the Altalena victims and called on MK Nir Orbach to "take action" and topple the Bennett-Lapid government.
"I hear in recent days that Nir Orbach is also concerned about the state of the country. Amichai Chikli and [Idit] Silman have already done the right thing. I urge Nir Orbach to do the right thing and I say to him: You were right when you said the experiment failed. But this failure endangers an entire country, endangers our future. At this crucial moment, action must be taken."
Netanyahu rejected the allegations made by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett against the opposition and said, "Expressing protest is not a poison machine. In a democracy, it is allowed to criticize. In a democracy, it is forbidden to cross the boundaries and act violently."
Earlier this week, Orbach announced that he will not vote with the coalition until the Judea and Samaria regulations are passed. On Thursday morning, Naftali Bennett asked Orbach not to shake the boat, and to remain in the coalition at least until after US President Joe Biden's visit next month.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the Degel HaTorah party, MK Moshe Gafni, submitted a bill to reduce the electoral threshold to one and a half percent, instead of 3.25% as it is today.
Gafni is reportedly interested in lowering the electoral threshold so that he can threaten his colleagues from Agudat Yisrael, Yisrael Eichler and Meir Porush, that Degel HaTorah will run alone if they do not align with his views.
Lowering the electoral threshold also serves the interest of Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, as it would “save” four slates that could not pass the electoral threshold should it remain at 3.25%, thus allowing Lapid to form a bloc preventing Netanyahu from becoming Prime Minister.
It is possible that Lapid and Gafni talked about this in their surprising meeting this week, which lasted a few minutes and was held in front of everyone in the Knesset.