Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader and Yesh Atid chairman MK Yair Lapid discussed the latter’s offer to supply a “safety net,” during a periodic security update on Monday, Lapid said in a video statement after the meeting.
“I told the prime minister – I don’t care about ministries, I served as foreign minister, I served as finance minister, I served as prime minister. I care about one thing only – returning the hostages, and if he needs a security net of any kind – that we enter the government, from outside the government, in any way – he should just say so,” Lapid told KAN News after the meeting.
Lapid has offered, in recent weeks, to join the government to free the 136 Israeli hostages in Hamas captivity, based on the assumption that far-right ministers, National Security Minister MK Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, may leave the government over a hostage deal if it includes a significant cease-fire and releasing many convicted Palestinian terrorists. This would leave the governing coalition without a majority in the Knesset.
Earlier on Monday, Lapid said in response to a question by The Jerusalem Post at a press conference, that Ben-Gvir, who leads the far-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) Party, is the “face of Israel and of the government that people in the world see, and this is not only outrageous, it is dangerous.”
Lapid’s criticism came in response to an interview with Ben-Gvir that was published in The Wall Street Journal on Sunday, in which the National Security Minister said, “Instead of giving us his full backing, Biden is busy with humanitarian aid and fuel [to Gaza], which goes to Hamas. If Trump [were] in power, the US conduct would be completely different.”
Politicians react to Ben-Gvir interview
Asked whether Ben-Gvir’s statements were indeed harmful, as he is not a member of the war cabinet and does not have much contact with US officials, Lapid said, “Unfortunately, the outrageous things he said to the WSJ influenced quite a bit … I think people do take him seriously because they know the size and magnitude of his effect on the government … and is a political force.”
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, in a speech later in the evening, said that “Ben-Gvir is not part of the authoritative body that makes decisions.”
Lapid warned that the month of Ramadan is around the corner and that Ben-Gvir’s conduct will lead to another disaster, as Ramadan is considered a period of heightened security tensions.
“I see it as my duty to warn the government. The country is not ready. There is no preparation. No plan. There were no sufficient discussions on the operational and diplomatic levels. We are on the way to a disaster, another disaster,” Lapid warned.
Lapid claimed that while Ben-Gvir “wanted” the tension to “go up in flames,” this was not what Israel needed. He called on the prime minister to “remove Ben-Gvir’s authorities, and immediately form a senior team to prepare the country.”
Ben-Gvir addressed the criticism in his weekly press conference later on Monday. While he recognized the “complicated reality” of Israel’s relationship with the US administration, Ben-Gvir reiterated that “the Biden administration must stop pressuring us to supply fuel and humanitarian equipment that end up going to Hamas.”
Ben-Gvir added that he learned two things from the responses: First, that many people in Israel agreed with him that Biden’s actions were contributing to Hamas’s ability to fight Israel, and second, that both political analysts and members of the Likud did not like his criticism. Ben-Gvir claimed that thousands of people had written to him saying that they agreed with his claim, and also that an “anonymous source” in the Likud contacted members of the party and told them to bash him publicly.
“I want to say to that source, and I want to say to those Knesset members, and I want to say to those analysts: I do things my way, without wavering, without backing down, [I] continue to raise things that hurt Israelis: There is a problem with the small [war] cabinet’s conduct facing the US administration,” Ben-Gvir said.
In a bizarre occurrence on Monday afternoon, Yoav Gallant and Minister-without-portfolio Benny Gantz, both in the war cabinet, announced within minutes of each other that they were giving separate press conferences at the same time on Monday evening. The two were unaware of each other’s plans, and Gantz canceled his press conference soon after. Yisrael Beytenu chairman MK Avigdor Liberman criticized the government over the occurrence and argued that it showed that the government was not functioning properly.
In other news on Monday, Finance Minister and Religious Zionist Party chairman Bezalel Smotrich placed the national budget for the year 2024 on the Knesset agenda, over two weeks after a January 20 deadline required by Israel’s quasi-constitutional Basic Law: State Economy. The Knesset, by law, must debate the budget for a minimum of 30 days, and according to law, on February 19, there will be a sweeping budget cut to all government ministries, which will be in effect until the new budget law passes.
The consequences of the delay are that the government will be unable to conduct any new transactions beginning on February 19 and until the budget passes.
Smotrich at his weekly press conference on Monday said that his party “respected Basic Laws,” but that its methodical work to prepare the budget did not enable him to bring it to the Knesset on time. Smotrich played down the consequences of the February 19 budget cut, saying that it will be a “fake cut,” since the budget bill is expected to pass soon after. Smotrich also laid blame on Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara, claiming she advised him to violate the Basic Law rather than lengthen the deadline since changing it over specific issues subverts their constitutional status.
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