United Torah Judaism will not support removing Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana for now. Party chairman MK Yaakov Asher set out the party's stance: "Our principled position is that the Speaker of the Knesset should be replaced at the same time a new government is formed, rather than when the Knesset is convened."
Asher argued that this sequence has been accepted practice in the past, with only one exception. He said it prevents "an absurd situation in which the Speaker of the Knesset is opposed to the government that is eventually formed."
Removing the Speaker requires the votes of 61 lawmakers. The four parties of the opposition bloc won 48 seats together, and senior figures in the bloc had named replacing Ohana among their immediate priorities. Leaders of the bloc met for 70 minutes in Herzliya that day but did not settle on a successor. Avigdor Liberman and Naftali Bennett wanted opposition leader Yair Lapid for the post. Gadi Eisenkot preferred a candidate from his own party and asked to postpone the decision.
