Opposition leaders move to oust Knesset Speaker Ohana before forming government - report

The opposition bloc has agreed on its first move in the new Knesset - replacing Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana of the Likud - despite the fact that it has not yet been decided who will form the next government, according to local news reports.

Because the speaker controls the parliamentary agenda, the move would give the camp opposed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sway over votes, legislation, and committee appointments, even if Netanyahu remains in office as head of a caretaker government.

The speaker is elected in an open vote, one of a new Knesset’s first orders of business. To oust Ohana, the opposition bloc will need a majority of the Knesset’s 120 members behind a single candidate, possibly with support from the Arab parties. No agreement on the next government is required.

Possible candidates for speaker include Chili Tropper, Matan Kahana, and Elazar Stern of Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party; Merav Ben-Ari and Eitan Ginzburg of Naftali Bennett’s B’Yachad party; Efrat Rayten of the Democrats; and Oded Forer of Yisrael Beytenu.

On Wednesday, KAN News reported that the bloc leaders were considering Yair Lapid for speaker. 

Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman predicted this week that some outgoing coalition lawmakers would also back replacing Ohana, estimating that as many as a third could vote against him.

Eisenkot lays out top intentions, top issues, in process of forming a gov't

This comes as Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot announced on Saturday that he intended to negotiate his way to a parliamentary majority, establish an October 7 Commission of Inquiry, implement compulsory military service for all, and repeal the judicial reform laws. 

"Every Knesset member who is willing to sign on to these principles is a potential partner on the path to establishing a new and better government for Israel," Eisenkot wrote on X. "The door of the government we will form will be open to every public representative who accepts these principles and is ready to rise to the occasion."

Arab party leaders feel spurned by Eisenkot, opposition bloc heads 

On Wednesday, the day after the election, members of the Joint List, an alliance of predominantly Arab parties, said they were ready to work with the opposition.

According to KAN News, Joint List leaders said they were insulted that opposition leaders had not contacted them to join coalition negotiations for the next government.

“We are ready and prepared to pave the way for ousting the Netanyahu government. In the face of the government of bloodshed, in the face of politics of supremacy, racism, and exclusion, we are offering a completely different alternative. Change goes through Jewish-Arab partnership, a real and equal partnership. Nothing less than that, and nothing more than that,” Joint List chairman Prof. Yousef Jabareen said.

Ofer Cassif, a Knesset member who is No. 5 on the Joint List’s slate, also addressed the opposition bloc parties.

“This is now or never: the removal of the malicious government and the beginning of repair, or the continuation of the horrors of the last four years. We are committed to repair; will the opposition bloc rise to the occasion? The ball is in their court,” he said.

Joint List leader MK Ahmad Tibi said that his party will not join the coalition in a "Meet the Press" interview on Saturday.

"We will not be a part of the government," he said, noting that he and his fellow party members want to make the coalition process "easier, not harder."