Likud aims to pass bills on direct elections, death penalty, outposts

Likud will speed up a series of right-wing bills on Tuesday and Wednesday, before Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid is given a mandate to form a government after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s expiration at midnight Tuesday .
Radical legislation, if finally approved, would change the nature of Israel’s legal and electoral system and expand its footprint in Area C of the West Bank.
The bills include legislation that would call for direct elections for the prime minister, reverse the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005, institute the death penalty for terrorists, prevent the entry of migrant workers, add more judges and allow circumvention of the Supreme Court, legalize the unauthorized West Bank and cancel the rotation of Blue and White leader Benny Gantz with Netanyahu as prime minister.
The committee’s vote must take place immediately as Likud’s control over it is tied to Netanyahu’s possession of a mandate to form a government.
Netanyahu, however, is not expected to meet the midnight deadline for creating a 61-member coalition.
If President Reuven Rivlin hands over the mandate to Lapid, which could happen as early as Wednesday evening, the chairmanship of the Arrangements Committee will be transferred to Yesh Atid MP Karin Elharar.
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When it comes to votes, right-wing parties, including those in the anti-Netanyahu camp, control the Knesset, unless they are held back by the politics of coalition building.
Speeding up legislation could be largely symbolic, as the bills are still expected to pass three readings and it is not clear whether there would be enough time for this legislative process to be completed before the Knesset is dispersed if the country is heading towards a fifth election.
If Lapid or some other politician succeeded in forming a coalition, then that government would take control of the Knesset’s legislative agenda. In the meantime, however, there is a narrow political window of opportunity for Israel’s right to make substantive legislative changes.
This includes legislation that would trigger a two-year process to legalize some 70 West Bank outposts and give them de facto legal status in the meantime.
Another bill would also repeal the 2005 disengagement laws under which Israel withdrew from Gaza, destroying 21 settlements and uprooting four settlements in northern Samaria. Passing the bill, however, would mean an Israeli return to Gaza, which is now run by Hamas. But it would at least allow Israel to rebuild the four communities in northern Samaria that were razed in 2005.