Changes will be made to Knesset regulations, in order to adapt to a smaller opposition, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said on Monday.

“We cannot have only one representative of the opposition on the State Control Committee,” he stated. “We must rearrange the Knesset’s committees to fit the new balance of power between the coalition and opposition in a way that allows the opposition to act in the Knesset.”

Since the national unity coalition was formed two weeks ago, there are only 26 MKs in the opposition. Some committees only have one opposition member, such as the Knesset State Control Committee, of which MK Uri Ariel (National Union) is chairman.

Labor faction chairman Isaac Herzog presented his demands to Rivlin and coalition chairman Ze’ev Elkin (Likud), which included adding opposition MKs to committees, as well as reducing from 40 the requisite number of MK signatures to require Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to go to the plenum.

Rivlin warned against passing a temporary law that would only apply to the current Knesset, suggesting instead that a system be put in place for situations in which the coalition consists of over 40 MKs.

“We have all seen situations in politics in which the wheel turned, and the ruling party found itself small, divided and in the opposition,” the Knesset speaker pointed out.

Elkin said the coalition can accept some of the demands, but not others, and will continue discussing the matter with Herzog next week. (© 1995-2011, The Jerusalem Post 05/21/12)