Zionist opposition parties back government amid fight with Iran

Israel’s opposition Yesh Atid, National Unity and Yisrael Beiteinu parties on Monday voted with the coalition to defeat a motion of no-confidence in the government submitted by the Arab Hadash, Ta’al and Ra’am factions.

The Knesset session, which was held in the legislature’s auditorium rather than the assembly hall as it is closer to a bomb shelter, showed unity among more than 100 of the parliament’s 120 lawmakers amid the war with Iran.

“We experienced a very special moment in these past minutes,” Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party, declared following the meeting.

“In such fateful moments, we all stand together,” Ohana said.

Member of Knesset Ayman Odeh, who submitted the motion on behalf of the Hadash Party, denounced the Zionist opposition lawmakers for withdrawing the motions of no-confidence they filed against the government last week.

“They said that now is wartime,” said Odeh. “So when exactly will it be the time for peace? After the destruction of another city, another village, another neighborhood, another building, another house, another life?

“I’m calling on the opposition: Why did you withdraw the no-confidence motions? Why do you keep cooperating with Netanyahu’s government?” exclaimed the Arab lawmaker.

Israeli Minister for Jerusalem Affairs and Jewish Tradition Meir Porush (United Torah Judaism Party) urged Odeh to “come up to the podium and say that the Iranian nuclear program must be eliminated.

“MK Odeh, you define yourself as a member of the Palestinian people—why don’t you ask Hamas how the hostages are doing?” Porush asked.

Overnight Wednesday, the coalition defeated a previous bill to dissolve the Knesset after the coalition reached a deal with the ultra-Orthodox parties on a proposal to regulate the military draft of haredi men.

The vote came shortly before Israel on Friday morning launched an attack on dozens of Iranian military and nuclear sites, in a “preemptive, precise, combined” opening strike against the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.

Netanyahu had said that the military operation will “continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat,” vowing to end “the Iranian threat to Israel’s very survival.”