Far-right ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday over the IDF’s scaling back troops from Gaza and reports that Israel is willing to make concessions in a hostage deal that it had not been willing to make previously.
Ben-Gvir, who is Israel’s National Security Minister, stated in a post on X that if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ends Israel’s war against Hamas without an extensive attack on Hamas in Rafah, he will “cease to have a mandate to serve as prime minister.”
אם ראש הממשלה יחליט לסיים את המלחמה ללא מתקפה נרחבת על רפיח על מנת להכריע את חמאס, לא יהיה לו מנדט להמשיך לכהן כראש הממשלה.
— איתמר בן גביר (@itamarbengvir) April 8, 2024
Smotrich, Israel’s Finance Minister, summoned his party members for consultations on Monday over what he described as “reports over a general deal to end the war without defeating Hamas.
Smotrich demands to convene National Security Cabinet
Smotrich demanded in a letter that Netanyahu immediately convene Israel’s National Security Cabinet, the statutory body with the authority to make policy decisions regarding the war.
According to Smotrich, “The only forum that is authorized to make decisive decisions during wartime is the broad [National Security] cabinet. Unfortunately, this is not how things have worked, and we see decisions being made by the small [war] cabinet without approval and without updating the broad cabinet, under international pressures that harm the war’s momentum and our security interests.”
The war cabinet is a smaller cabinet authorized to make tactical decisions in the war. It includes Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, National Unity Minister-without-portfolio Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, Shas chairman MK Aryeh Deri, National Security Council chairman Tzahi Hanegby, and top security officials.
Smotrich continued in his letter that he has been “warning for many weeks that instead of lowering the floor from the gas pedal, we need to increase the pressure on Hamas in Gaza, and this is the only way to bring back the hostages and defeat Hamas.”
Leader of the opposition, MK Yair Lapid, who is currently on a diplomatic trip in the US, wrote on X that his party would be willing to serve as a “safety net” for the government on a hostage deal. Lapid pointed out that his party, Yesh Atid, has 24 seats in the Knesset, far more than the 14 seats of both Ben-Gvir and Smotrich combined.
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