Peretz threatens to resign, vote against 2015 budget

Environmental Protection Minister Amir Peretz (Hatnuah) said Saturday that he would quit the government if it did not change course, and that he would vote against the coalition-supported 2015 budget.

Speaking on Channel 2, Peretz promised “I will not be a part of a government that continues in this direction.”

“I will not support the budget as it is today,” he continued, “when the cries of the poorest people are in front of me, and I will not remain in a government that behaves as it does today.”

“Netanyahu is not the solution, but the problem,” Peretz charged.

Analysts said that the direct attacks on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would likely force Netanyahu to fire Peretz, possibly as soon as Sunday morning.

Voting against the budget on Monday would all but seal Peretz’s fate. Ministers are not permitted to vote against their government’s decisions.

Peretz refused to say whether he thought Netanyahu was fit to be prime minister, but did say that “the time has come to start talking about alternatives to the prime minister.”

The former Labor Party leader and ex-defense minister also accused Netanyahu of being captive to extremists in Israel.

Coalition chairman Ze’ev Elkin responded to Peretz, accusing him in a statement of cheap political maneuvering, Haaretz reported: “Amir Peretz knows the rules of the political game well. If he doesn’t want to be part of the government, he knows that  it is not hard to find the fax number of the Prime Minister’s Office in order to send in his resignation letter. I understand that right now, surviving politically until the next term is what matters for Amir, and apparently he is looking for his way in another political framework. But the Israeli public is not stupid, and it knows how to discern between cheap populism and maneuvers to survive politically, and true ideological positions.”

Other coalition members seemed equally unfazed by the threat. “If the problem is a pen and paper, or typing the letter, we can help him with this,” said Deputy Religious Affairs Minister Eli Ben-Dahan.

Likud Deputy Minister Ophir Akunis called Peretz’s words “insolence and lack of decency,” and said it would be better for him to resign than just issue threats.