Defense Minister Benny Gantz's National Unity Party will "be there" if Likud chairman and prime minister-elect MK Benjamin Netanyahu wishes to oppose his partners' "actions that involve harming democracy or national security," Gantz said to reporters ahead of his party's weekly faction meeting on Monday.
Gantz clarified that his support would come from the opposition and that he would not join a government led by Netanyahu.
"We will be there to fight when necessary and support when possible, according to the national interest," Gantz said.
Since the November 1 election, Gantz has repeatedly denied the option of leaving the Religious Zionist Party and Otzma Yehudit party in the opposition by entering a Netanyahu-led government.
However, his rhetoric has not been as harsh as other leaders of parties heading to the opposition, and he has stated on a number of occasions that his party would support whatever legislation the coalition put forward that it believed was good for the state.
Ben-Gvir threatens the coalition
Otzma Yehudit chairman MK Itamar Ben-Gvir threatened Netanyahu in his statement ahead of his party's weekly meeting that he did not see a reason to join the government if he is not given the position of the stand-in head of the ministerial committee on legislation, which he argued would enable him to carry out his plans as national security minister.
Ben-Gvir said that there were "senior members of the Likud" who were telling Netanyahu not to agree to this, but declined to say who they were.
Sole Noam MK Avi Maoz argued in his press statement that the widespread opposition to his position was uncalled for. Maoz will receive the branch in the Education Ministry that is responsible for all of the external programs that teachers may choose from. Maoz said that all he would do was "increase transparency" by showing parents that there was progressive and left-wing content that was being hidden from them.
Maariv spoke to officials in the Education Ministry, who sent a link to a website where all of the programs are listed, showing that nothing was being hidden.
Maoz told The Jerusalem Post that he was uninterested in responding to this.