Bibi’s Ministers Threaten to Quit as Coalition Crisis Intensifies

Meanwhile, Bayit Yehudi leaders Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked worked behind the scenes with other coalition partners on compromises that could prevent early elections, such as delaying the Knesset's upcoming recess to pass the budget, dropping Haredi demands to pass the conscription bill into law and seeking an extension from the Supreme Court on its deadline to change the law.

In further details, War Minister Avigdor Lieberman said he would remove his Yisrael Beytenu faction from Netanyahu's coalition if United Torah Judaism leader Ya'acov Litzman gets his way and a bill facilitating Haredim avoiding army service passes into law by next week.

Lieberman said that it was neither serious nor reasonable to pass such complex legislation in what he termed a "wham bam thank you ma'am" kind of speed.

For his part, Netanyahu spoke to Lieberman, coalition chairman David Amsalem and Tourism Minister Yariv Levin in a conference call from Washington on Monday and urged them to take action to resolve the crisis.

After meeting with US President Donald Trump, Netanyahu told reporters that he does not want to go to new elections over the Haredi conscription, but that he has" witnessed stranger things."

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team