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svgadminsvgMay 25, 2016svgNews

What did Liberman give up on in joining the coalition?

Yisrael Beytenu chairperson Avigdor Liberman signed a coalition agreement with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Wednesday to enter the government, but a reading of the agreement reveals that he gave up on many of his demands in the process.

Last week Liberman declared three central conditions for his joining the coalition: a pension reform, that he be appointed Defense Minister, and a law applying the death penalty to terrorist murderers.

But a reading of the final agreement revealed by Channel 2 exposes that aside from Liberman’s folding on the death penalty bill demand, the deal allows Netanyahu to swap him from the Defense Ministry to another portfolio, and the pension reform was changed and expanded so as not to only apply to immigrants from the former Soviet Union – a key voting base for Yisrael Beytenu.

The agreement specifies that if the coalition government – which now sits at 66 MKs with Liberman’s addition – is further expanded to over 70 MKs, changes can be made to the agreements including the distribution of portfolios. The clause means Liberman’s post as Defense Minister could be up for change.

Also present in the deal is a clause in which Liberman conceded on his death penalty bill demand, and instead of the bill settled on amending instructions to the IDF military court allowing it to hand down a death sentence to terrorists convicted of murder with a simple majority of two judges instead of a unanimous decision of three.

Israel has a death penalty on the law books, but it was only implemented once in 1962 against Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann. Yisrael Beytenu attempted to pass a terrorist death penalty bill in July 2015, but the Knesset overwhelmingly voted against it 94-6, with only Liberman’s party voting for it. Despite pressing for the bill again in the coalition talks, Liberman eventually downgraded the demand.

Yisrael Beytenu and Likud agreed in the coalition deal that they would not join any coalition government in the current Knesset without the other party.

Liberman’s party was given a number of portfolios: Defense Minister, Immigration Minister, Deputy Knesset Speaker, a member of the Economics Committee, membership in the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, membership in the Social-Economic Cabinet, and membership in the Committee on Symbols and Ceremonies Affairs.

Likewise the party will work to establish an Absorption and Immigration Cabinet, headed by a Yisrael Beytenu minister.

Limitations on the High Court

Liberman also took on the obligations of the other coalition member parties to support an amendment to the basic law, which would in the future allow the appointment of more than one deputy minister to each governmental ministry, and also allow more than one minister per ministry.

Another clause in the agreement requires the coalition parties to support the legislation of a bill limiting the inflated powers of the High Court to strike down laws passed by the Knesset, the elected representatives of the public.

The planned law will prevent the High Court from striking down laws with anything less than a majority of eight out of 15 judges.

One of the factors in the collapse of the previous government was friction over the Israel Hayom bill, which sought to close the free paper that is supportive of Netanyahu. Liberman’s party, like Jewish Home, was among those supporting the bill which singled out the paper.

In the new deal, Yisrael Beytenu’s membership in the coalition obligates it to support governmental reforms and not to support bills in the field of communications without the permission of the Communications Minister – a role currently held by Netanyahu.

Liberman had demanded additional pensions for new immigrants, but eventually he settled to have the change apply to all seniors, with funding for the reform adding up to 1.4 billion shekels ($363 million) over the next four years starting from the 2017 budget.

The new mechanism will work by increasing the number of senior citizens eligible for extra pension income, with around 50,000 of them from all strata of the population to receive around 200 shekels a month from the benefit.

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