National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has given Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a list of demands which he says must be fulfilled before the Otzma Yehudit party agrees to return to the Knesset plenum to vote with the coalition.
Ben-Gvir demands, among other things, that he be present at security discussions and situational assessments with senior security officials, that a military operation be launched to collect illegal weapons in Judea and Samaria, that parts of the judicial reform be passed, and that the conditions of terrorists in Israeli prisoners be tightened.
Kan News reported that Netanyahu has attempted in recent days to contact Ben-Gvir to discuss ending the Otmza Yehudit party’s boycott of Knesset votes. However, Ben-Gvir will only agree to end the boycott if he sees “steps on the ground,” and Netanyahu is currently unwilling to allow Ben-Gvir to participate in sensitive security briefings in any manner.
Earlier, Ben-Gvir said in his explanation as t why he skipped today’s Cabinet meeting that “the State of Israel must move from containment to attack. The Israeli government must take the initiative, strive for contact, and embrace the values of the right.”
“True, this is not an Otzma Yehudit government, we don’t have 64 mandates, but Likud also made promises. This is the reason I didn’t come to the government meeting today and that’s why Otzma Yehudit members won’t come to the Knesset votes. We demand that right-wing values be adopted,” Ben-Gvir said.
He added: “And one word for Minister Gallant who talked about seeing many bodies of terrorists, I have no doubt about that. But Minister Gallant, in recent years, I have seen dozens of murdered people, it is for those murdered people that we need to stop the containment, stop the concessions, not release bodies, not release terrorists, but kill them.”
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said during the Cabinet meeting: “The corpses of terrorists are not really an asset that influences terrorist groups, with the exception of some very specific cases that are connected to Hamas.”
“Hamas”s decisions in Gaza are not connected to the body of a terrorist from a small group in Judea and Samaria, and it has no influence. They”re not interested,” he said.
In an apparent jab at Ben-Gvir, Gallant said: “Personally, I don”t get excited over a minister that attacks me most of them have seen fewer terrorists” bodies than I have. The problem with these statements is that they hurt the families of missing soldiers and give them a mistaken sense that we are not doing enough for them.”
“The security establishment is making tremendous efforts to return the missing persons. I suggest to all members of the government that they stop these irresponsible and harmful statements,” the Defense Minister added.
