Amid coalition crisis, Netanyahu cancels upcoming Austria trip
Cancellation of visit to Vienna comes as PM’s political partners call for early elections following Liberman’s resignation; would have been first trip in two decades
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has cancelled a planned trip to Austria next week, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson confirmed Thursday, amid growing calls from his political partners for early elections.
The visit to Vienna — which was announced by Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz last week — would have been the first by an Israel prime minister to Austria’s capital since 1997.
The scheduled trip signaled the increasingly close ties between Jerusalem and Austria’s right-wing government and was set to include a number of bilateral meetings and Netanyahu’s participation in a conference on anti-Semitism.
Netanyahu’s decision to call off the trip came after Avigdor Liberman’s resignation as defense minister left the coalition with a razor-thin majority in the Knesset, prompting calls from top ministers for fresh elections.
Liberman’s resignation, announced Wednesday and formalized on Thursday morning, came in protest of a ceasefire agreement with Hamas that brought an end to a major flareup in violence in the Gaza Strip.
Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party is quitting Netanyahu’s coalition, leaving the premier with only a two-seat advantage (61-59) over the opposition in parliament — the bare-minimum majority — and throwing his government into turmoil.
Netanyahu began consultations with heads of parties in his coalition to stabilize it on Wednesday evening. He has not yet named Liberman’s replacement, and has not indicated if he will comply with an ultimatum by the Jewish Home party, which is demanding the defense portfolio in the wake of Liberman’s departure.
The prime minister is due to meet the Jewish Home leader, Education Minister Naftali Bennett, on Friday.
On Wednesday, Liberman said he was resigning over the ceasefire reached with Gaza terror groups following an unprecedentedly intense two-day rocket barrage on Israel’s south.
“What happened yesterday, the ceasefire, together with the deal with Hamas, is a capitulation to terror. There is no other way of explaining it,” Liberman told reporters.
Other defense officials also leveled harsh criticism of the government’s handling of the Gaza flareup, telling Kan on Thursday morning that security considerations in Israel were becoming increasingly politicized.
On Tuesday evening, the security cabinet agreed to an informal ceasefire with Hamas in a decision that several cabinet ministers later said they opposed.
Liberman, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, Environmental Protection Minister Ze’ev Elkin and Education Minister Naftali Bennett proposed an alternative response, but it was rejected by other ministers at the meeting, according to Channel 10.
The decision was slammed by some opposition leaders, who called it a capitulation to terror after a deadly two-day conflagration that saw over 400 rockets and mortar shells fired at southern Israel. Netanyahu has defended the ceasefire deal that ended the worst escalation between Israel and Palestinian terror groups in Gaza since a 2014 war.
An official from Netanyahu’s Likud party hit back at speculation that early elections would be called and said Wednesday that the prime minister would take charge of Liberman’s portfolio at least temporarily. Netanyahu also holds the Foreign Ministry portfolio.
The Times of Israel Community.