Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked announced Monday morning that they are not resigning, allowing the current government to live out its days.
The Bayit Yehudi party threatened to leave the coalition if leader Naftali Bennett doesn’t receive the defense portfolio, a position vacated by Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Lieberman, who resigned last week.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday evening announced he intends to keep the defense portfolio, leading many to believe Bennett would make good on his threat and leave.
Moreover, both Bennett and Shaked have complained the government has lost its right-wing character and asserted it would be hard to govern with only a one-vote majority in the Knesset.
Shaked set an ultimatum for the prime minister: Security or elections. “At this point, the government is no longer a right-wing government, unfortunately,” she said.
In a press conference on Monday, Bennett walked back his resignation threat, saying that the “ball is in the prime minister’s court now” and that he expects to “see a change in policy toward Hamas.”
“If the prime minister is serious about his intentions, and I want to believe his words last night, I hereby notify the prime minister—we are removing all of our political demands at this time and stand with you, ready to offer assistance,” Bennett declared, according to Ynet.
“I assume this announcement will take its political toll, but we’ll survive. It is better to let the prime minister win in a political battle than let (Hamas leader Ismail) Haniyeh defeat the State of Israel,” he added.
Explaining his about-face, Bennett said that “The State of Israel is facing a crisis of confidence in the defense establishment.”
The enemies are the same, Bennett said, and “the security situation today is not more dangerous than what it was a few months ago, when the prime minister sought to bring down his government for political reasons, or because of the Israel Public Broadcasting Corporation (IPBC).”
He noted meanwhile that the problem is “internal.”
Source: Israeli media
