Shas opposes the law, as they expect to not benefit from this, but will have to support it anyway due to coalition agreements. I am not sure why they think they won't benefit. Plenty of Israeli sefardi citizens live or travel abroad, and many of them might vote Shas. Perhaps in percentages they are fewer than supporters of other parties so even though they might get some additional votes, those votes would be canceled out by the larger number voting for other parties. Just a guess.
PM Netanyahu wants this law advanced and claims it will strengthen Israel.
The proposal is justified by explaining that absentee voting already exists in a limited fashion - for Israelis working for various arms of government and other organized bodies, with 4200 Israelis abroad voting in elections. This law would expand that to the many Israelis abroad in private capacities.
Another important factor is that the law would allow absentee voting for Israelis abroad who retain Israel as the center of their lives - meaning, in each of the 7 years prior to the elections, one would have to have been in Israel for 210 days of the year (for each of those 7 years). Alternatively, in each of the 5 years prior, the Israeli would have to have spent 270 days in Israel.
Absentee voting would be done no later than 80 days before the elections. Only registered eligible voters would be allowed to vote, so the "pinkas bochrim" - the ballot roll - would not be changed. This law is expected to give tens of thousands of Israelis abroad the ability to vote.
source: Walla News
I have heard Moshe Feiglin support absentee voting in the past, and he even wants to include all Jews in this and not limit it to just Israelis. He thinks that the many right wing Jews in America would vote for him.
I have heard the Orthodox parties oppose similar law proposals in the past as they think it would strengthen the vote for the non-religious and hurt the religious, with the Reform and Conservative Jews abroad voting for anti-religious platforms (the non-Orthodox Jews in Feiglin's proposal and the non-religious Israelis in other proposals). They think that even with the many religious Israeli citizens living abroad, the numbers are minor compared to the many non-religious Israelis, so ultimately they think they would be hurt by this.
In the past similar proposals failed to advance, despite being included in coalition agreements. This proposal seems to have support form both sides of Parliament, so perhaps it has a better chance of advancing.
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