Quick explainer on whether Handel and Hauser will suffer sanctions if they leave the Telem party to join the Netanyahu-Gantz coalition.
The law says that MKs who split off of a Knesset faction suffer sanctions UNLESS they fulfill one of three conditions:
The law says that MKs who split off of a Knesset faction suffer sanctions UNLESS they fulfill one of three conditions:
A) They number at least 2 MKs and make up a third of that Knesset faction or more;
B) The split is along party lines, in a Knesset faction made of multiple parties;
C) They split in protest of their faction's decision to merge with another faction.
Any one of these is sufficient.
B) The split is along party lines, in a Knesset faction made of multiple parties;
C) They split in protest of their faction's decision to merge with another faction.
Any one of these is sufficient.
The main question here is exactly how the Blue & White faction's split will be seen in the eyes of the law. Remember that Blue & White is made up of three parties:
* Gantz's "Israel Resilience"
* Lapid's "Yesh Atid"
* Ya'alon's "Telem"
* Gantz's "Israel Resilience"
* Lapid's "Yesh Atid"
* Ya'alon's "Telem"
If Blue & White is simply splitting in two, with one faction headed by Gantz and the other headed by Lapid and Ya'alon, then Handel and Hauser have no problem. They can split as part of Gantz's faction, which is more than a third of Blue & White.
This fulfills condition "A".
This fulfills condition "A".
If, however, Israel Resilience is doing a party-line split from the rest of Blue & White, Handel and Hauser are stuck. They aren't their own party, so they can't fulfill condition "B" - and they aren't a third of what remains of B&W, so they also can't fulfill condition "A".
Finally, however, if Blue & White is actually splitting into all three component parties, and then Yesh Atid and Telem are re-merging, then Handel and Hauser can abandon Telem in protest of the merger, thus fulfilling condition "C".
To summarize: there are three ways the Blue & White faction split can be seen in the eyes of the law. In two of those ways, Handel and Hauser are fine; in the third, they aren't.
Sanctions include:
* No ministry appointments
* No running with existing parties next election.
Sanctions include:
* No ministry appointments
* No running with existing parties next election.
Of course, since the Netanyahu-Gantz coalition will be have the majority in the Knesset, they'll presumably get to freely choose which of the above interpretations they want to use.
Or they can just pass a new law allowing them to split.
Or they can just pass a new law allowing them to split.
Tal Schneider points out here that the Knesset committee that makes the ruling is *already* headed by someone from Gantz's faction, so it will be very easy for them to choose a favorable interpretation of today's events:
