The fight being waged over the past few days to have Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s immunity removed even before the election on March 2 is the most effective opposition effort seen in the Knesset in years.
On Jan. 12, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein will have to decide whether he will allow the formation of a new Knesset House Committee to discuss Netanyahu’s immunity. The Blue and White party has already threatened that if he vetoes the demand of 65 Knesset members to form the committee, they will take steps to replace him. This extremely aggressive tactic signals that the Blue and White party is starting to use the same methods against Netanyahu that he himself would have no qualms using to get what he wants. Will they go all the way with their threat? There is no way of knowing. What is clear now, however, is that there are finally people in the Blue and White party who understand the role of an opposition and are willing to take shrewd advantage of existing parliamentary and legal procedures. All of this places Netanyahu and the Likud party on the defensive.