Bennett: I agreed to compromise over cabinet overhaul, Netanyahu didn’t

Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett said Sunday evening that he had agreed to a compromise to resolve a coalition crisis over a security cabinet overhaul that is threatening the expansion of the government but that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to accept it.

Bennett, a senior cabinet member, has threatened to vote against the recent appointment of Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Liberman to the defense ministry — thus sinking a new coalition deal between the ruling Likud and Yisrael Beytenu — if his demand for greater intelligence-sharing in the high-level security cabinet.is not met.

The Jewish Home head wants Netanyahu to appoint a military attaché for each member of the sensitive 10-member inner cabinet committee to provide ministers with real-time security updates, coordinate additional fact-finding visits to IDF bases and other military zones, and facilitate easier access to classified information.

In a memo sent out to his faction’s members on Sunday, Bennett explained that Health Minister Yaakov Litzman (UTJ) had suggested appointing acting National Security Adviser Yaakov Nagel, or his deputy, to temporarily act as a military attaché to the cabinet.

The temporary position would remain filled until a suggested committee formed by Netanyahu to find a more permanent solution has finished its work.

“Litzman approached me first and, out of respect for the prime minister, I agreed,” Bennett wrote in the memo. “Afterwards, Litzman approached the prime minister but, to my regret, he refused the compromise.”

A Jewish Home vote against Netanyahu’s pick for the sensitive defense post would torpedo the newly inked deal that saw Liberman’s five-member Yisrael Beytenu party join the Likud-led governing coalition, part of a months-long efforts by the prime minister to expand his wafer-thin Knesset majority.

Bennett’s threat caused the Knesset to postpone a plenum vote scheduled for Monday to approve Liberman’s appointment. The vote is now set for Wednesday, in en effort to allow the sides to reach an agreement.

Earlier Sunday, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, a member of Jewish Home, insisted new elections were “a possibility” if the prime minister did not accede to the party’s demands for the security cabinet reform.

“There don’t need to be elections, but if they want to downgrade the situation to that — it’s certainly a possibility,” she told Army Radio.

Likud has warned that a vote against Liberman’s appointment would mean the immediate firing of Jewish Home’s three cabinet ministers — Education Minister Bennett, Shaked and Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel — and likely the collapse of the coalition.

Netanyahu’s current 61-seat coalition needs Jewish Home’s eight votes to pass Liberman’s appointment in the 120-member Knesset.

Even with the five-seat Yisrael Beytenu on board, a coalition without Jewish Home would shrink to 58 seats, losing its parliamentary majority and possibly triggering new elections.

Netanyahu on Friday offered to establish a committee headed by former Israel National Security Council head Yaakov Amidror that would examine ways to reform the security cabinet. Jewish Home rejected the idea out of hand, accusing the prime minister of stalling.

Bennett’s demands are only the latest crisis for Netanyahu to result from his appointment of Liberman. The move led the sitting defense minister, Likud’s Moshe Ya’alon, to resign and issue a bitter critique of the government, warning that “extremist and dangerous forces have taken over Israel and the Likud movement.”