Naftali Bennett, leader of the "Together" party, issued a statement on Wednesday evening slamming the government and the coalition, claiming that the election of attorney Michael Rabello as State Comptroller will be struck down by the Supreme Court.
"What we witnessed today in the Knesset broke all records of criminality and chaos in Israel. Following the draft-evasion bills, the abandonment of the north, and the greatest security failure in our history, the chaos coalition of Smotrich, Deri, and Netanyahu has proven they have absolutely no red lines. To the position of State Comptroller - the person who is supposed to oversee and investigate Netanyahu - they appointed his most intimate, personal attorney: Netanyahu's consiglieri," Bennett charged.
He cast doubt on how the vote for the Comptroller position was conducted in the Knesset plenum. "A vote that is legally required to be free and by secret ballot was turned into a public, coerced vote - held under a political gun to the heads of Knesset members. This process is rotten to the core, blatantly illegal, and flies a pitch-black flag. That is why it will be disqualified. The appointment will be overturned, but it will not be forgotten. The citizens of Israel will remember this forever."
Bennett continued his attack on the government, saying, "There is a direct line connecting the dishonor shown to the October 7 massacre and the subversion of electoral integrity we saw in the Knesset today - abandoning Israel's citizens for the sake of personal interest. These are politicians who do not care about the country, only about themselves."
“This government will stop at nothing to flee from the truth and escape its responsibility for the greatest massacre in our nation's history. If they need to turn a private attorney into the State Comptroller to whitewash the investigation and hide the truth, they do it. If they need to hold a 'political gun' to the heads of MKs, they hold it. A government that tramples its citizens, abandons its fighters, and proved yet again today that it denies its own murdered victims, has lost all authority to make even a single decision affecting the citizens of Israel," he concluded.
MK Erez Malul (Shas) responded to Bennett and said, It is deeply regrettable to hear Naftali Bennett's vitriolic attack on the democratic election of the State Comptroller. The institutions of government and oversight are the pillars of our democracy, and it is incumbent upon all of us to treat them with statesmanship. In a democracy, one must respect the majority decision and state institutions, even when the choice is not to your liking, and even when you sit on the opposition benches."