National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit faction will boycott votes in the Knesset until Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu implements a ‘fully right-wing policy,’ the Otzma Yehudit chairman said during a press statement in the Gaza border town of Sderot on Wednesday afternoon.
Ben-Gvir added that the government must enable its minister to influence the state’s national security policy.
The statement marks a spiraling rift in the coalition between Otzma Yehudit and the Likud. Tension began to rise already on Tuesday, after Ben-Gvir demanded to attend the prime minister’s security situation assessment after dozens of rockets were fired from Gaza, but was not invited.
Otzma Yehudit then announced that it would not show up for Wednesday’s votes in the Knesset plenum, and instead hold a special faction meeting in Sderot, following what they called a “weak response in Gaza.”
The Likud responded to the move a few hours later, saying in a statement that “the prime minister, defense minister, IDF and security agencies are the ones who manage the sensitive and complex security events that Israel faces. The prime minister is the one who decides who is relevant to which discussion. If this is unacceptable to Ben-Gvir, he does not need to remain in the government.”
“If this is unacceptable to Ben-Gvir, he does not need to remain in the government”
The Likud party
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich present a plan for free early childhood education, April 30, 2023. (credit: ALEX KOLOMOISKY/POOL)The national security minister responded by holding the aforementioned live statement to the press at short notice, in which he retaliated by prolonging the Knesset boycott until he becomes an “influential” decision-maker over the nation’s national security.
Otzma Yehduit resignation would leave a minority coalition
Otzma Yehudit has six Knesset members, and without them, the coalition only has 58 votes, versus the opposition’s 56. This could make it more difficult for the coalition to ensure that it has a majority in every vote –with hundreds of votes expected in the coming weeks over the country’s national budget.
The decision to declare a full return to routine on Wednesday morning in the Gaza border communities came after over 100 rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel in a span of 24 hours and was met with harsh criticism by a number of right-wing politicians.
Following an IDF security assessment held early Wednesday morning and a night of red alerts and rocket sirens, it was decided that activity in the Israeli communities on the Gaza border can resume as normal, with no special security measures remaining in place. Schools will also be open normally.
Otzma Yehudit faction coordinator, MK Yizhak Kroyzer, demanded that Israel not return the body of Khader Adnan to the Palestinian Authority, until Israel in return receives the bodies of Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, who were killed during Operation Protective Edge in 2014 and whose bodies were not returned. Adnan was a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) political official in the West Bank, who died in Israeli custody Tuesday morning after an 86-day hunger strike. His death is what sparked the rocket attacks.
Otzma Yehudit MK Almog Cohen responded to the decision angrily, saying that “the lax response of the IDF certainly invites the next round that will continue and damage the lives of our children and the normal fabric of life of the residents of the [Gaza border communities] and the South who put their trust in us.”
According to Cohen, he also spoke with Education Minister Yoav Kisch regarding matriculation exams that will be held in high schools in Israeli towns near Gaza on Wednesday. Due to the security situation, students who do not feel able to take the test due to recent events will be entitled to take the tests at a later date, Cohen said.
Sderot Mayor Alon Davidi, who in the past was a Likud member before briefly joining Yamina, criticized the government’s lacking response and called to resume the targeted killing of terrorist leaders.
“The reality is that the Israeli government adopts a policy of granting immunity to terrorists, this is a lax policy for which we will pay a price this summer. Hamas and [Palestinian Islamic] Jihad did what they wanted, they did it last week and they will continue in the future. This is a failed policy,” Davidi said.
“The terrorist leaders must be eliminated. It looks as if someone signed an agreement under the table that the IDF would not kill them,” he added.
“There is no sense in a policy that allows immunity for terrorists, it’s a violation of the security of the State of Israel. We need to move to the initial phase, we brag that we know how to reach Iran and Syria and yet here, two meters from us, there is an army of terrorists that the State of Israel does not kill and lets them initiate and attack.”
Likud MK and former ambassador to the UN Danny Danon joined the criticism. “To restore deterrence, we should have got up this morning and heard how many terrorists were decisively eliminated last night. If we continue to bomb empty positions, we invite the next round. That’s not how deterrence is built,” Danon wrote on Twitter.
Religious Zionism MK Zvi Sukkot also expressed his disappointment via Twitter, writing: “The equation with Hamas has not yet been changed, weakness led to weakness and when terrorism from the north and in northern Samaria doesn’t receive a heavy blow, that message is understood in all sectors. And yet. This is the only government in the last decades that has a chance to dramatically alter this terrible equation.”
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