Once upon a time Bibi supported something called the Norwegian law. This law stated that a Knesset Member who was appointed to be a Government Minister must give up his Knesset seat. The next party member in line would then join the Knesset. If the Minister was fired from the government then he would get his seat back and go back to being an MK, and the last MK would leave the Knesset.

Why is this important?

For one thing it gets more of your party members into the government and the Knesset, but more importantly, it is the beginning of a separation of powers, with at least the idea that a Minister is involved with executive issues, while the MKs are involved with legislative issues.

Why is this relevant?

For the Ichud Leumi party it is important because Katzeleh signed an agreement with Uri Bank that if Katzaleh becomes a Minsiter he would quit as an MK, and Uri Bank would then get in as an MK.

But now there is a problem.

Bibi is politically unstable, and it isn’t clear that if Katzaleh becomes a minister and quits being an MK, that he won’t be fired by Bibi when Bibi starts going far Left, thus leaving Katzeleh out of both the Knesset and the Government.

That’s a bad thing.

The solution to that would have been the Norwegian law, but that isn’t going to be voted in during this government.

Why not?

Because if the Norwegian law goes into effect, and the Likud has 8 ministers, guess who gets into the Knesset.

Feiglin.

So Bibi no longer supports this law.

For the moment Katzeleh is only asking for a Deputy Ministers position so he doesn’t violate his agreement with Uri.

But instead, the Ichud Leumi will probably try to pass a modified version of the Norwegian law (call it Chok Katzeleh) that will allow an MK to voluntarily give up his seat if he becomes a minister, but will get it back if he stops being one.

And that would resolve all the difficulties.