Fidelity Advert

Israel’s Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman has resigned in protest over the government’s refusal to launch a large-scale military operation into the Gaza Strip, imperiling Prime Minister Benjamin Netahyahu’s ruling coalition and raising the possibility of a general election one year earlier than planned.

Lieberman, who is the leader of the right-wing nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party, made the announcement at a surprise press conference in Jerusalem Wednesday and called for fresh elections, the Israel Television News Company reported. He slammed the ceasefire with Hamas as “capitulation to terrorism.”

Netanyahu had refused to accept Lieberman’s proposal for a large-scale offensive into the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian coastal enclave controlled by Islamist militant group Hamas.

Lieberman’s departure will deprive Netanyahu of the support of Yisrael Beiteinu’s five Knesset members, leaving his coalition with a razor-thin one-seat majority. The next general elections was scheduled for November 2019, but Netanyahu may be forced to call Israelis to the polls early if his weakened position leaves him unable to govern.

The defense portfolio is seen as the most prestigious and powerful post in the cabinet after that of the prime minister, and fierce competition is expected for Lieberman’s succession. Education Minister Naftali Bennett, leader of the hardline national-religious Habayit Hayehudi, has alreday threatened to withdraw his 13 members of Kenesset from the coaltion if he doesn’t take over Lieberman’s seat, YNET reported. Such a move would collapse Netanyahu’s government and require a general election. Likud officials, however, told the Israeli Television News Company that Netanyahu might take up the defense portfolio himself for a caretaker period, postponing the showdown with Bennett to a later date.

Tensions between Israel and Hamas have been high in recent months. In March, Gazans began a protracted series of protests along the border fence, which were met with gunfire by Israeli soldiers leaving at least 168 dead and more than 18,000 injured, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.

The protest movement—calling for Palestinian refugees to be given the right to return to the lands their ancestors left or were forced from in what is now Israel when the country was founded in 1948—coincided with the opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, a contentious project that drew criticism from across the Muslim world.

Tit-for-tat rocket barrages and airstrikes occurred alongside the protests, while some Gazans began launching incendiary balloons against Israeli agricultural communities on the other side of the border fence.

Despite recent ceasefire negotiations, violence flared once more earlier this week. A botched undercover Israeli intelligence mission in Gaza resulted in a firefight and a series of airstrikes, leaving one senior Hamas commander, six other Palestinians and one Israeli officer dead.

Lieberman was one of the more hawkish voices in Netanyahu’s cabinet, but the prime minister chose a path of de-escalation to avoid another bloody war in Gaza.

Haaretz cited sources close to Lieberman who said he decided to resign after Netanyahu’s office told the media the defense minister supported the ceasefire with Hamas, despite his own protestations. Bennett was another cabinet minister who published statements against the truce with Hamas.

 

 

 

Newsweek

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here