The Religious Zionist Party, led by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, met at the finance ministry in Jerusalem on Thursday morning in order to discuss the hostage deal and decide whether or not to leave the government if it approves the deal.
Smotrich said in a statement on Wednesday night that “a clear condition for our remaining in government is total certainty of a return to war with great force, in full capacity, and in a new fashion until full victory in all its components, led by the destruction of the terror organization Hamas and the return of all hostages to their homes”.
The statement indicated that Smotrich did not receive the assurances he demanded in a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday.
An MK from Smotrich’s party, Tzvi Sukkot, said in an interview on Kan Radio prior to the party meeting that “most chances” were that the party would leave the government.
Ben-Gvir condemns deal
On Tuesday night, National Security Minister MK Itamar Ben-Gvir said in an interview on Channel 14 that the deal was “terrible”. However, Ben-Gvir did not announce that his party would leave the government if the deal goes through. Ben-Gvir applied “political pressure” on members of Smotrich’s party on Tuesday to make a joint public threat that both parties would leave the government. However, such a threat has yet to be made.
Smotrich and Ben-Gvir have 13 Knesset seats between them, which is enough to bring down the 68-MK coalition. Even if they leave the government, the deal will remain intact and can be implemented during the statutory three-month election campaigns. In addition, opposition party leaders MKs Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz both repeated prior promises to provide a “political security net” for Netanyahu in order for the deal to go through, if necessary.
A “no” vote by Ben-Gvir and Smotrich’s ministers in the national security cabinet and government plenum will not block the deal: Ben-Gvir and Smotrich are the only representatives of their parties with voting rights in the 11-member national security cabinet and have six ministers between them out of the 33-member government.