Yaakov Ben-Shemesh, a former aide to retired Supreme Court president Aharon Barak, has launched a sharp attack on Yashar! chairman Gadi Eisenkot over his conditions for joining a unity government and his threat to use a Knesset majority to advance legislation.
Ben-Shemesh wrote on Sunday that Eisenkot is setting conditions he cannot deliver on, and singled out the proposal to establish a state commission of inquiry as legally flawed.
"I see Gadi Eisenkot still hasn't sobered up from his ridiculous 'victory' speech," he wrote. "Now he's setting conditions for a unity government and threatening to 'immediately exercise the clear parliamentary majority' to establish a state commission of inquiry, repeal the 'coup laws,' and other vegetables."
he argued that having a parliamentary majority does not guarantee the ability to pass legislation without a stable government. "Someone needs to update the guy that a 'parliamentary majority', probably another hollow slogan his clever advisers invented for him, without a solid coalition majority isn't worth much," he wrote.
He went on to address the possibility of a minority government advancing legislation with the support of Arab parties. "Legislative procedures aren't a TV show on demand, and at some point he'll have to wake up from the infantile delusions about 'a minority government with Arab support for a legislative blitz,'" he wrote.
But his main criticism was directed at the state commission of inquiry issue. He said Eisenkot's threat to use a parliamentary majority to establish the commission rests on a mistaken legal understanding.
"But just on the legal level, maybe someone should remind Eisenkot that to establish a state commission of inquiry you don't need to 'exercise' any parliamentary majority. The law already exists. It only requires *a government decision* to establish such a commission."
