January 5, Tel Aviv, Israel (ANI/TPS): Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s Minister of National Security, expressed regret on Saturday evening for requiring Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to leave the hospital early in order to participate in a Knesset vote on legislation on Tuesday.

Ben-Gvir also expressed regret for making Likud MK Boaz Bismuth skip his week of mourning for his mother in order to cast his ballot.

“I did some soul-searching on Shabbat and realized that I was wrong when I saw the Prime Minister and Boaz in the plenum and we did not offset them,” said Ben-Gvir. “I’m sorry to my buddy Boaz Bismuth and the Prime Minister. We shall now counterbalance the prime minister until, with God’s grace, he completely recovers.

An agreement that a member of the opposite party would likewise abstain from voting is used to “offset” the absence or incapacity of one member of parliament to cast a ballot. This procedure is known as offsetting. This unofficial agreement guarantees that the result of a vote is not unduly impacted by the absence of a lawmaker. It usually comes up when a member of the Knesset is on official business.

Against the recommendation of his physicians, Netanyahu left the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital while recuperating from prostate surgery. Wearing his hospital wristband, he was spotted in the Knesset plenum with his personal doctor. His release occurred on Thursday. Netanyahu’s attorneys asked Friday for a two-week postponement of his corruption trial, citing the Prime Minister’s discharge directives that called for two weeks of recuperation.

A decision on the “Trapped Profits Law” on Tuesday gives the government the authority to tax “trapped profits,” or gains that firms and multinationals keep for use in infrastructure, research, and corporate expansion. By a vote of 59-58, it was approved.

The bill’s failure may have put the state budget’s approval at risk later on or resulted in a deficit of up to $10 billion ($2.74 billion). According to the legislation, the government would immediately dissolve and national elections will be held if the Knesset does not approve a budget by March 31.

Three members of the United Torah Judaism party and five members of Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party were among the eight coalition members who voted against the measure.

Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party is calling for more funding for the police, jail service, and fire department. Legislation exempting Haredim, or Orthodox Jewish residents, from military duty is demanded by the United Torah Judaism party.