On Tuesday, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir threatened to quit the government if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to a hostage and ceasefire deal that’s being negotiated in Qatar and called for Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to join him.
Ben Gvir has been opposed to any kind of ceasefire deal in Gaza as he favors the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza and the establishment of Jewish settlements. In a post on X, he took credit for preventing a deal like this from happening earlier.
“Over the past year, through our political power, we have managed to prevent this deal from coming to fruition, time after time,” Ben Gvir said.
Ben Gvir’s Jewish Power party and Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party have had significant leverage over Netanyahu since if they leave the government, the coalition would lose the majority in the Knesset, which could potentially lead to new elections.
Smotrich has also come out strongly against the ceasefire deal but did not threaten to quit the government if it’s signed. “I call on my friend, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, to join me in full cooperation against the terrible deal being crafted and to inform the Prime Minister clearly and firmly that if the deal goes through, we will resign from the government together,” Ben Gvir said.
Ben Gvir said the only way Netanyahu won’t sign the deal is if “the force opposing it is large enough to prevent him from doing so.”
Yair Lapid, the former prime minister who leads the opposition, has stated that he would help Netanyahu stay in power if he agreed to a ceasefire deal. “I offered him a political safety net for a hostage deal. This offer is valid now, more than ever. If Netanyahu wants to and can make a deal, he and I know how to close the details of the safety net in half an hour,” Lapid said on Monday.
Ben Gvir acknowledged that even if he and Smotrich unite, “we will not bring down Netanyahu, but this move is our only chance to prevent its implementation, and in fact to prevent the surrender of the State of Israel to Hamas.”
