National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s far-right Otzma Yehudit party left the coalition on Sunday morning, following through on its threat to withdraw if the government agreed to a ceasefire deal with Hamas in the Strip from Gaza.
In a statement, the party said its three cabinet members – Ben Gvir, Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu and Negev, Galilee and National Resilience Minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf – submitted resignation letters to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In addition, MPs Zvika Fogel, Limor Son Har-Melech and Yitzhak Kroizer resigned from their seats in the various committees of which they were members.
“As of this moment, the Otzma Yehudit party is no longer a member of the coalition,” the party said.
Otzma Yehudit’s departure reduces the Netanyahu coalition’s majority in the Knesset from 68 of 120 MKs to 62 or 63, depending on complex deals that will now need to be resolved between Ben-Gvir’s party and Israel’s Religious Zionism. far right of Bezalel Smotrich, who ran on a common basis. list in the 2022 elections before going their separate ways.
In a letter to Netanyahu, Ben Gvir boasted of his “significant achievements under your leadership” but complained about what he sees as “the prime minister’s capitulation to terrorism deal, which crosses all the ideological red lines.”
The ceasefire constitutes “a complete victory for terrorism,” Ben Gvir said, asserting that “we do not intend to work to overthrow the government you lead, but on ideological issues we will vote according to our opinions and our conscience.
“We will not return to the government table without a complete victory against Hamas and the full achievement of the objectives of the war,” he added.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir holds a press conference with members of his far-right Otzma Yehudit party in Jerusalem, January 16, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/FLASH90)
The statement did not mention Otzma Yehudit MP Almog Cohen, who broke with his party to vote with the coalition several times in recent weeks, leaving his current status uncertain.
Israeli media speculated that Cohen – who did not attend the party’s press conference Thursday evening in which he announced he would step down from the government if the cabinet approved the deal – would remain a member of the coalition.
An Otzma Yehudit spokesperson referred the matter to Cohen, who did not respond to a request for comment from The Times of Israel.
However, when asked about Ben Gvir’s withdrawal from the coalition during an interview with Radio 103FM on Sunday morning, Cohen replied that “if it’s that serious, he should have brought down the government and not resigned.”
“There is nothing good with the devil; it was a devil before and it will remain so after the agreement. There is no choice but to make a deal because it is the devil who kidnapped our brothers,” he said, adding that his priority was “to resume the fight and destroy Hamas “.
Netanyahu’s coalition will retain a majority in the Knesset even without Ben Gvir’s party, although it will be much narrower than before.
MP Yitzhak Kroizer became an MP in early 2023 under the so-called Norwegian law when Amichai Eliyahu became Minister of Heritage. The law allows ministers and deputy ministers of major factions to resign from the Knesset, with their seats occupied by members of their party.
Otzma Yehudit MK Almog Cohen shouts at Hadash-Ta’al MK Ofer Cassif during a contentious Knesset committee hearing, October 29, 2024. (Sam Sokol/Times of Israel)
However, Eliyahu’s resignation from the cabinet will not push Kroizer out of the Knesset. Instead, it will force the resignation of Religious Zionist MP Zvi Sukkot, who occupied a lower place on the two parties’ joint electoral list in the 2022 parliamentary elections. This would likely prompt Finance Minister and Religious Zionist Chairman Smotrich , to regain his own seat in the Knesset, thus eliminating Kroizer.
That would leave Otzma Yehudit six seats out of 120 in the Knesset, bringing the coalition majority down to 63 if Cohen stays in the coalition – or 62 if he doesn’t.
Kroizer’s exit from the Knesset would also remove him from the judicial selection committee, where he is a loyal supporter of Justice Minister Yariv Levin.
Kroizer is one of the Knesset representatives on the judge selection committee, whose composition was a central part of the government’s judicial reform program, which Levin is currently seeking to revive.
Acknowledging his imminent exit from the Knesset, Sukkot said in a statement Sunday afternoon that he supported Smotrich’s decision to remain in government.
“The broad outlines speak of a second phase of the agreement which would include the complete and definitive withdrawal of Israel from Gaza and, in return, the return of Hamas to power. I have no doubt that if we were to dissolve the government now, that would be where it would go, and of course with the full support of the heads of the security establishment,” he said. “Personally, I am convinced that the decision to remain in government under the conditions we set was the right one.”
Given that committee members representing the Knesset are elected by secret ballot by parliamentary majority, it would be difficult, in the event of Otzma Yehudit’s departure from the coalition, to guarantee that another supporter of judicial overhaul would replace Kroizer , a coalition source told the Times. from Israel earlier this month.
Otzma Yehudit MK Yitzhak Kroizer seen during a Knesset vote for representatives to the judicial selection committee, July 12, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
In an interview with Channel 12 on Saturday evening after confirming his impending resignation, Ben Gvir claimed that Netanyahu, trying to persuade him not to resign, had suggested, among other things, that he might fire the head of state. -IDF Major Herzi Halevi and give Ben Gvir credit for the move. Ben Gvir has long criticized the army chief as being insufficiently tough on Hamas.
In response to Ben Gvir, the prime minister’s office said he had “not been offered anything” and that his assertion was “a complete lie.”
The national security minister compared his impending resignation with the fact that others, like Smotrich, who had threatened to resign, did not do so.
“I am a man of principles,” Ben Gvir said, arguing that the agreement with Hamas opened the way for future kidnappings.
Last Thursday, Smotrich’s far-right Religious Zionism party reiterated its opposition to a ceasefire deal in Gaza and insisted that its stay in government depended on ending the war without complete military defeat of Hamas.
In a video statement Saturday evening, Smotrich condemned the “terrible” deal and reiterated that he “will not sit in a government that, God forbid, stops the war and does not continue it until complete victory over Hamas.” But he said his party was prepared to remain in government, after Netanyahu agreed to a number of his demands.
Religious Zionist MK Zvi Sukkot speaks during the conference on “Israel’s Return to the Temple Mount” at the Knesset in Jerusalem, July 24, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
“Unfortunately, we were unable to prevent this dangerous agreement, but we insisted and were able to guarantee, by government decision, in the cabinet and by other means, that the war will not end, one way or another, without achieving all of its objectives – first and foremost the complete destruction of Hamas in Gaza,” he said.
“We demanded and obtained a commitment to completely change the method of warfare,” he continued, including “through a gradual takeover of the entire Gaza Strip, the lifting of restrictions placed on us imposed by the Biden administration and total control of the gang. , so that humanitarian aid does not reach Hamas as it has done so far.
The prime minister’s office has not confirmed details of the deal Smotrich claims to have reached with Netanyahu.
However, a coalition source confirmed to The Times of Israel that Netanyahu had provided Smotrich with a guarantee of resuming the war after the first phase – but that nothing had been written.
It was “all verbal,” the source said, adding that discussions about what was promised were “mostly political” given that “Trump had already promised to lift the arms embargo/slowdown” and “Rubio has said this during a Senate hearing last week. that sanctions against settlers would be lifted.
“Smotrich wants to take credit for the resumption of the war after the first phase in order to make Ben Gvir look like an idiot. Bibi said okay. It’s pretty much that simple,” the source added.