The speaker's chair matters beyond the coalition talks. Liberman pledged to start collecting signatures to replace the current speaker, Amir Ohana of Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud. "Replacing the Knesset speaker is critical, also for the election of the state comptroller," Liberman said. He accused Ohana of having "functioned as a political commissar" and said Ohana "broke all the rules."
The speakership was already a source of friction inside the opposition Change Bloc. Political analyst Shirit Avitan Cohen said on Monday that a dispute over who would hold the post was the main reason the bloc's leaders had failed to hold a joint meeting six days after the election. "The partners want the position in order to keep Eisenkot on a short leash until a government is formed," she said.
The bloc's five leaders were scheduled to meet on Tuesday at the Dan Accadia Hotel in Herzliya: Eisenkot, Naftali Bennett, Liberman, Yair Golan and Lapid. It was set to be the first time all five sat together since the election results were published.
Partial results gave Netanyahu 53 seats and Eisenkot 48. The Change Bloc cannot reach 61 seats without support from either the chareidi or the Arab parties.
