JERUSALEM, April 6, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - A key member of Israeli Prime
Minister Naftali Bennett's Yamina party said Wednesday she was quitting his
coalition government, in a surprise move that leaves him without a
parliamentary majority.

   Idit Silman's announcement left Bennett's coalition, an alliance of
parties ranging from the Jewish right and Israeli doves to an Arab Muslim
party, with 60 seats -- the same as the opposition.

   "I tried the path of unity. I worked a lot for this coalition," Silman, a
religious conservative who served as coalition chairperson, said in a
statement.

   "Sadly, I cannot take part in harming the Jewish identity of Israel," she
added.

   On Monday, Silman lashed out at Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz, after he
instructed hospitals to allow leavened bread products into their facilities
during the upcoming Passover holiday, in line with a recent supreme court
ruling reversing years of a prohibition.

   Under Jewish tradition, unleavened bread is not allowed in the public
domain during Passover.

   "I am ending my membership of the coalition and will try to continue to
talk my friends into returning home and forming a right-wing government,"
Silman said.

   "I know I'm not the only one who feels this way."

   Following the announcement, Silman was embraced by the same right-wing
politicians who had relentlessly attacked her since Bennett reneged on
election promises and formed his ruling coalition last year with her.

   "Idit, you're proof that what guides you is the concern for the Jewish
identity of Israel, the concern for the land of Israel, and I welcome you
back home to the national camp," opposition head and Likud chairman Benjamin
Netanyahu said in a video recording.

   "I call on whoever was elected with the votes of the national camp to join
Idit and come back home, you'll be received with all due honour and open
arms," said the right-wing former prime minister.

   To form a coalition of his own without new elections, Netanyahu would need
the support of at least 61 lawmakers, which he currently does not have.

   Bezalel Smotrich of the Religious Zionism party, once a political partner
of Bennett, expressed his appreciation to Silman for her "courage to make the
difficult move", and predicted the ruling coalition would not survive the
shift.

   "This is the beginning of the end of the left-wing, non-Zionist government
of Bennett and the Islamist Movement," he wrote on Twitter.

   There was no immediate comment from Bennett, whose Yamina party now holds
just five of the parliament's 120 seats.