Bennett steps up threats to quit coalition, topple government

Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett on Sunday threatened to quit the coalition over his demands for greater intelligence-sharing in the high-level security cabinet, as Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein urged the Likud and Jewish Home parties to cut a deal quickly to avoid new elections.

Bennett is demanding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appoint a military attaché for each member of the sensitive 10-member 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.

Bennett has threatened that his party will vote against incoming defense minister Avigdor Liberman’s appointment, scuttling the coalition deal signed Wednesday with the Yisrael Beytenu party. The 61-seat coalition needs Jewish Home’s eight votes to pass the appointment in the 120-member Knesset.

“We are not demanding jobs and not demanding money. We are asking to save people’s lives. Human life is more important that government portfolios. I will continue to fight to protect IDF soldiers and the residents of the Gaza periphery from everywhere, from within the government or outside it,” Bennett said.

Edelstein on Sunday called on Netanyahu and Bennett to bridge the “small gaps” and avert “unnecessary” elections.

“I know the gaps are small and both sides have good intentions,” said Edelstein. “We must not forget that the larger goal is to serve the citizens, and not lead them to unnecessary elections every year.”

Earlier Sunday, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked insisted new elections were “a possibility” if the government did not accede to the party’s demands.

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

Meanwhile, Kulanu party leader Moshe Kahlon on Sunday said he had no intention of bringing down the ruling coalition, days after a minister appointed by his party resigned to protest the “extremist” government he said is leading Israel to destruction.

“The government will last,” Kahlon, who serves as finance minister, told Israel Radio on Sunday.

“We have large, important challenges, and you can’t bring down a government every month, you can’t go to elections every year. The government needs to function,” he added from Rome, where he is visiting.

The standoff between Bennett and Netanyahu over the reform threatens to topple the government, according to Netanyahu confidant Likud MK Tzachi Hanegbi. But a source close to the prime minister told Israel Radio the issue was expected to be resolved on Sunday.

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, Justice Minister Shaked and Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel — and likely the collapse of the coalition.

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

“We are on the brink of a political crisis, which may get worse on Monday if Bennett votes against the government and as a result the Jewish Home is no longer in the coalition,” Hanegbi told Channel 2 on Saturday.

Hanegbi, who heads the powerful Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said there was justification for the call to improve how the security cabinet operates. “But this improvement cannot, in my opinion, come through an ultimatum,” he said, but rather through coordination.

Netanyahu on Friday offered to establish a committee headed by former 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.

Netanyahu canceled Sunday’s regularly scheduled cabinet meeting amid the crisis. The security cabinet meeting will go ahead as planned late morning or afternoon, where the two will reportedly try to work out some compromise.

Liberman’s appointment must be approved by the cabinet, and then by the Knesset. Netanyahu is believed to have a majority among government ministers even without Jewish Home, but will need the party’s votes for the Knesset vote. Both votes are currently scheduled for Monday.

Hanegbi said that Bennett’s ultimatum was essentially “political suicide,” especially if the threat is carried out and Jewish Home votes against the government to torpedo the coalition deal.

If this right-wing government falls, or, alternatively, if a left-wing party joins the coalition instead of Jewish Home, the party will pay a heavy political price with its own constituents, Hanegbi cautioned.

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.”