Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir a spot in a renewed version of a war cabinet last month but requested that this not be made public immediately, Ben-Gvir said in an interview on KAN radio on Tuesday.
According to a spokesperson for Ben-Gvir, the prime minister’s promise came as part of an attempt to win the support of the national security minister’s Otzma Yehudit Party for a controversial bill known as the “Rabbi’s Law,” which the Shas Party was adamant on passing.
However, the prime minister requested that the promise not be made public “immediately” to avoid appearing to cave in to Ben-Gvir’s conditions, the spokesperson said.
He added that the prime minister delayed fulfilling the promise, and the national security minister therefore decided to go public. Ben-Gvir on Monday once again conditioned his support for a Shas bill on him becoming part of the war decision-making mechanism, leading to a new coalition crisis.
Initial reports last month were that Netanyahu had offered Ben-Gvir to listen in on security consultations, but not to be a full part of the decision-making process. Ben-Gvir is considered an extremist by international actors including the US, and his promotion to the highest level of decision making could negatively impact Israel’s relations with the US, Europe, and the UN, including ongoing cases against Israel in the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court at The Hague.
The Prime Minister’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
While Ben-Gvir has demanded since the war’s outset to be a part of the war cabinet, the demand only developed into political crisis after the original war cabinet, which included then-ministers from the National Unity Party, MKs Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, fell apart after National Unity left the government on June 9.
Leaving coalition without majority
Shas on Monday ditched the Knesset plenum in fury over Ben-Gvir’s refusal to support its bill, and it continued to boycott the plenum on Tuesday. This left the coalition without a majority. The coalition was therefore forced on Monday and Tuesday to remove all of its items from the daily agenda.
The bill in question would give the government the power to fund jobs for religious officials in municipalities, including in those that do not have functioning religious councils. Shas says the bill’s purpose is to improve religious services; critics have argued that the bill’s purpose is to enable the party to provide hundreds of government-paid jobs to party members.
Ben-Gvir and members of Shas traded barbs on Monday, and the mudslinging continued on Tuesday. Welfare Minister Yaakov Margi of Shas charged in an interview on KAN radio that Ben-Gvir has “acted during the entire term as if he was alone. He operates aggressively, bullies, and sometimes even extorts the finance minister and prime minister, and this time it is against us.
“The prime minister probably knows why he does not want Ben-Gvir included [in the war cabinet],” Margi continued. “We often felt in government meetings that there was someone who was running to tell things to his buddies, his behavior yesterday reveals irresponsibility.”
Ben-Gvir responded on KAN soon after, saying that Shas chairman MK Arye Deri “has always been an Oslo [Accords] person who flirts with the Left. In every meeting he favors compromise and surrender. He is against an attack in the North, against an attack in the South, and supports an irresponsible [hostage] deal.”
In a message announcing the fact that no laws would be brought for a vote in Tuesday’s plenum, coalition whip MK Ofir Katz blamed the “irresponsible conduct of Otzma Yehudit.”
“I am unwilling to rely on any party outside of the coalition, and unwilling to run it based on the moods of its partners. I hope that the situation where a coalition party helps the opposition harm us, ends.”