Head-to-head battle between senior Likud members: "After false briefings - now it's in your name"

Much has been said this week about the bitterness in the ruling party following the results of the primaries for the Knesset list, but such a sharp confrontation between two senior Likud members has not been remembered for a long time. Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi criticized Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana this evening, Thursday. The tweet published by Karhi was met with a sharp response from Ohana: "After a long period of anonymous and false briefings - at least this time you did it in your name."

The public confrontation between Karhi, who reached 13th place in the Likud primaries, and Ohana, who finished the internal elections in second place, developed following the Supreme Court's ruling to disqualify the government's decision to close Galei Tzahal. Minister Karhi wrote on the X network in response to the decision, which was accepted unanimously by three judges: "The Supreme Court is overstepping the boundaries of the government and the Knesset. The answer must be sharp and clear: no. No one has placed you above the people and their elected representatives."

Later in his remarks, Minister Karhi noted that the government should instruct Defense Minister Israel Katz to carry out the decision to close Galei Tzahal immediately, and then turned to attack Knesset Speaker Ohana without mentioning his name. "It is also unclear why the Knesset Speaker did not respond to the demand of 25 Knesset members to bring to discussion the decision establishing that the Knesset's laws are valid and exist despite the Supreme Court," Karhi wrote. The Communications Minister added: "If the government and the Knesset do not stand firm to protect their dignity and the dignity of this people in the face of judicial bullying, why should we complain about the people who are fed up with the democratic performance at the ballot box? But we are to blame, it is in our hands."

Knesset Speaker Ohana did not remain in debt and replied to Karhi with a tweet of his own on the X network. "It's strange that instead of sending me a message on my mobile and asking, you chose a post," Ohana wrote. "On the other hand, after a long period of anonymous and false briefings - at least this time you did it in your name. Already progress." Ohana wrote further in response to Karhi: "If you had sent a message, you would have learned that a request for a discussion on a motion for the agenda during a recess period is required according to the Knesset rules to be submitted with the signatures of 25 Knesset members. Ministers cannot submit motions for the agenda, or sign them. On the motion you submitted, six ministers are signed out of twenty-five signatures. Not proper. We, unlike the Supreme Court, act according to the law."

The Knesset Speaker noted further in the counter-attack: "There are MKs who, during the primaries period, are busy instead of with their success, with shooting at the armored personnel carrier and trying to harm other candidates. This is a mistake that adds nothing, and often even detracts. The primaries are behind us. The voters have had their say. Now it is a commandment for all of us to fall in line and charge together - united - towards the goal, which is the Likud's victory in the general elections, and not to waste energy on quarrels within Likud for a few likes. I am amused by those who try to preach to me about fighting the judicial system. I think - I was there first. God willing, we will win the general elections and continue together with the necessary corrections and balances."

Minister Karhi responded to Ohana's tweet: "It's strange that three weeks have passed since I passed to you a demand of 25 MKs, and all this time you did not find it appropriate to tell me that there is, in your opinion, some flaw in it. No message, no phone call, and not a word. Only now, after public criticism, the legal claim was suddenly born. The role of the Knesset Speaker is to protect the status of the Knesset and to harness the wagon to realize its powers, not to look for legal interpretations that will tie its hands." Karhi even needled Ohana: "Regarding the primaries, indeed, the voters have had their say. But success in the primaries does not erase what was done during the term. In the test of the result, the Knesset in your period has weakened against the judicial system instead of strengthening. Unfortunately, except for performances for the media, you did not succeed in maintaining the dignity of the Knesset."