Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, sent this Wednesday (19) a warning message to his government partners and called for unity in the face of the challenges of the war in the Gaza Strip and the escalation of tension with the terrorist group Hezbollah in border with Lebanon.
“We are at war on several fronts and face great challenges and difficult decisions,” Netanyahu declared in a video message, after Parliament failed to pass a law to increase the power of Israel’s Grand Rabbinate (the country’s highest religious authority). ) in the election of municipal rabbis.
Netanyahu’s last-minute decision not to put the bill to a vote due to a lack of support drew criticism from one of the coalition’s main partners, the leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, Aryeh Deri, who reportedly threatened to leave the government if the bill of law was not approved.
The episode is yet another example of the internal disputes that have marked the government, which is in constant tension due to the demands of the different parties in the coalition, formed by two ultra-Orthodox and two nationalists, in addition to the prime minister’s Likud.
This Wednesday, Netanyahu’s party sent a harsh message to one of the coalition ministers, Itamar Ben Gvir, who is leader of the Jewish Power party, whom he accused of leaking “state secrets”.
According to the Israeli press, Netanyahu would have offered Ben Gvir to participate in confidential meetings on security issues if he supported the rabbis’ bill, which many oppose on the grounds that it would only serve to inflate public spending in favor of Shas voters, creating hundreds of new positions for municipal rabbis.
Likud dismissed the reports as “false” but admitted that Netanyahu himself had told the minister that “anyone who wants to participate in a limited team of security consultations must prove that they do not leak state secrets or private conversations.”
The Israeli prime minister warned that “this is not the time for petty policies or for laws that put at risk the coalition, which is fighting for victory against its enemies.”
Ben Gvir has long demanded that Netanyahu include him in war decision-making, especially after the departure of Benny Gantz, leader of the center-right National Unity party. Gvir also wants to participate in the emergency government and the War Cabinet, created after the Hamas terrorist attacks on October 7 last year.
Gantz left the cabinet on June 9, after accusing Netanyahu of “not having a post-war plan for the Gaza Strip”, and Netanyahu dissolved the body.
In a speech given this Wednesday at Tel Aviv University, Gantz defended his decision to leave the emergency coalition, accusing Netanyahu of “constantly breaking unity with his behavior” and calling for new elections to be held before the end of one year. start of the war against Hamas.
This week, thousands of Israelis are participating in a series of protests across the country to demand Netanyahu’s departure from power and the negotiation of a ceasefire agreement with Hamas that would release Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip, something precisely opposed by Ben Gvir, who has threatened to overthrow the government if Israel ends the war. (With EFE Agency)
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