Israeli media reported this week that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had obtained the support of his coalition partners for a bill that would limit the powers of the president after the next elections. The legislation proposes that only a Knesset member who is also head of his or her party can be tasked by the president with forming a government.

A senior Likud source speaking on the condition of anonymity told Al-Monitor on Nov. 5, “Netanyahu will announce early elections only after the ‘Gideon Saar Law’ passes the second and third readings. He’s going for it full force.”

That same morning, David Amsalem, chairman of the governing coalition, put the bill on the Knesset’s agenda, and the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee is expected to pass it on Nov. 11. The proposed law will then pass from the committee to the Knesset plenum on its legislative journey. The chair of Kulanu, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, and the chair of HaBayit HaYehudi, Education Minister Naftali Bennett, have already declared that they will support the legislation. 

The bill is in fact an amendment to the Basic Law on the government and stipulates that the president can only charge a member of Knesset who is a party chair with the job of forming a government following an election. For Netanyahu, the amendment is meant to ensure that former Likud Minister Gideon Saar and President Reuven Rivlin cannot carry out the “conspiracy of the century” and “steal” the job of putting together the next government from him.