MK Dovid Bitan, the Director of the Coalition, had MK Ohana's law proposal for protecting LGBT people from harassment removed from the floor. That means it was not voted on. This was after Minister Litzman threatened a coalition crisis over the law. Ohana has attacked Bitan for giving in to Litzman's demands.
Bitan explains that he had two choices:
1. let the proposal continue to voting in the Knesset today, wher eit would fail as too many people opposed it
2. removing the proposal from the agenda and giving Ohana time to rally support for the bill and raise it again later after he has enough support
My following question might be due to a lack of understanding of the process, so I would appreciate anybody who could both answer the question and explain the process.
My question is, why does UTJ get to threaten the coalition every time they want to pass a aw that goes against the natural beliefs of, say, Likud MKs and insist that coalition discipline is in effect and everyone must vote in favor of their bill. And they do. Yet, when a bill like Ohana's goes up (or bills from other Likud MKs that were not supported by the Haredi parties) we do not see the Likud telling its coalition partners that they must vote in favor of the bill with coalition discipline in place. Bitan somehow has the power to tell him muster the support yourself. Why doesn't this work in both directions? Why can't the Likud put its weight behind its place in the coalition and its proposals?
I understand coalition politics, but I don't understand why it pretty much always goes in one direction. Just like Likud, for example, has to support bills it does not necessarily favor because of its coalition partners, so UTJ, for example, should also have to do the same, yet we rarely see them supporting a bill they don't like.
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