Ben-Gvir attacks Netanyahu over decision-making and isolating coalition partners

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir criticised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, saying that he “makes decisions alone and isolates his partners in the government.” Ben-Gvir made his comment on X in the context of Netanyahu’s refusal to include him in the war cabinet.

The head of the Jewish Power party, which has six out of 120 Knesset seats, posted “When the Prime Minister conducts himself as a one-man government — makes the decisions alone, and isolates his natural partners in the government, including cabinet meetings that are emptied of meaningful content, it is intolerable.”

On 9 June, two members of the war cabinet from the State Camp party, Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, announced their resignation. The cabinet was then dissolved, according to Israeli media, but Netanyahu continued to consult on the management of the war with a smaller group that included Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, Shas party head Aryeh Deri, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and National Security Council head Tzachi Hanegbi.

Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth quoted unnamed sources in Ben-Gvir’s party yesterday as saying that as long as their demand for Ben-Gvir to join the war cabinet is not met, they will resort to “disrupting the work of the coalition,” including by disrupting voting on draft laws proposed by the government.

Ben-Gvir also mentioned Israel’s management of the war on several fronts, saying, “We are floundering in Gaza, on the northern border, handcuffing the [army]. We are conducting negotiations with promiscuous opening conditions, on the way to a political settlement that is all surrender to terrorism on all fronts.”

The minister and the equally far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich have threatened on more than one occasion to withdraw from the coalition government if a prisoner exchange deal is reached with Hamas that would stop the war.

Indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas, mediated by Egypt and Qatar, are due to take place in Doha and Cairo in the coming days. Israeli media quote unnamed Israeli sources as saying that the negotiations “may take a month.”

READ: Ex-Israel general: Rejecting prisoner deal is like dropping a nuclear bomb on us