Opposition parties are weighing a move to replace Amir Ohana, the current Knesset speaker from Likud, with Yair Lapid, the B'Yachad party's number two, even before formal coalition negotiations get underway, according to a report by The Times of Israel. Other names reportedly under consideration for the post include Oded Forer, Elazar Stern, Orit Farkash-Hacohen and Efrat Rayten.
The push rests on the fact that Gadi Eisenkot's opposition bloc, combined with the Arab-led Joint List and Ra'am, commands a parliamentary majority even though none of those parties have agreed to formally join a governing coalition together. Securing the speakership separately from coalition talks would let the opposition begin advancing a state commission of inquiry into the failures of October 7, move to repeal the current government's judicial overhaul legislation, and control the Knesset's legislative agenda.
The maneuver reflects an opposition strategy to lock in institutional power quickly, even as the broader process of forming a new government could stretch on for months given that neither Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc nor Eisenkot's reached the 61-seat majority needed to govern outright, with 53 and 48 seats respectively as of Wednesday's count.