Far-right Otzma Yehudit returning to the government after resumption of war in Gaza
‘Together in strength, for the sake of the people of Israel,’ Ben Gvir exults following end of two-month stint in the opposition over party’s objection to ceasefire deal
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Former national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s ultranationalist Otzma Yehudit party announced on Tuesday that it was returning to the government, just under two months after leaving the coalition and as Israel resumed fighting in the Gaza Strip.
In a joint statement, Otzma Yehudit and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party said that they had “agreed that the Otzma Yehudit faction will return to the Israeli government today, and Otzma Yehudit ministers will return to the government.”
Otzma Yehudit quit Netanyahu’s coalition in January, following through on its threat to exit if the government agreed to a ceasefire agreement with Hamas that the party dismissed as a “surrender-to-terror deal that crosses all ideological red lines.”
As he left the government, Ben Gvir pledged that he and his colleagues would “not return to the government table without a complete victory against Hamas and the full realization of the war’s goals.”
Aside from Ben Gvir, Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu, and Negev, Galilee and National Resilience Minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf also gave up their ministerial portfolios when the party left the coalition.
Following Otzma Yehudit’s exit from the coalition, the cabinet approved the temporary appointment of Tourism Minister Haim Katz to the three ministerial positions left vacant by the party. It was widely believed that the reason for making Katz’s appointments temporary was Netanyahu’s desire to signal to Ben Gvir that the portfolios were waiting for him, should he wish to return to the coalition.
“Together in strength, for the sake of the people of Israel,” Ben Gvir posted on X following the announcement on Tuesday afternoon, sharing a photo of himself with Netanyahu in the Knesset plenum.
Ben Gvir’s return to the government came only hours after the resumption of military operations in the Gaza Strip overnight, during which the IAF carried out an extensive wave of airstrikes across the coastal territory that targeted mid-level Hamas commanders, members of the terror group’s politburo, and its infrastructure.
“We welcome the return of the State of Israel, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to intense fighting,” Ben Gvir said in an earlier statement.
“As we said in recent months when we withdrew [from the government], Israel must return to fighting in Gaza,” he said. “This is the right, moral, ethical and most justified step, in order to destroy the Hamas terrorist organization and bring back our hostages. We must not accept the existence of the Hamas organization and it must be destroyed.”
The reappointment of Ben Gvir, Eliyahu and Wasserlauf requires both the approval of the cabinet and the ratification of the Knesset, which is expected to come on Wednesday.
Channel 13 reported that Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara has instructed legal advisers working with the cabinet “not to advance” the necessary cabinet resolution to return Ben Gvir to the government “until a factual clarification” can be conducted. Contacted by The Times of Israel, a spokesperson for the attorney general denied the report.
The pair have frequently sparred in the past, with the attorney general calling on Netanyahu to weigh firing Ben Gvir for illegal intervention in police conduct and Ben Gvir in turn accusing her of engaging in a fishing expedition against him and demanding her termination.
Responding to the report, Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi tweeted that Ben Gvir would soon be voting in the cabinet to dismiss Baharav-Miara, whose opinions “are not binding or of interest to anyone” and who “did not receive a mandate to determine the composition of the government.”
Following Otzma Yehudit and Likud’s announcement, Yair Golan, the chairman of the left-wing The Democrats party, also condemned the move, tweeting that Ben Gvir’s return to the cabinet exposed Netanyahu’s weakness.
“Ben Gvir is Netanyahu’s prime minister. The man who humiliated Netanyahu by dragging him sick and pale to vote in the plenum — forced him to bring him back to the government as a hero,” Golan wrote.
Prior to leaving the government, Ben Gvir — who has a history of clashing with his political allies — began voting against the coalition on important budget-related bills in the Knesset. This opposition forced Netanyahu to leave his hospital bed last December while recovering from surgery in order to cast a ballot to ensure that a critical bill was approved.
Ben Gvir’s return will have significant ramifications for other parties in the coalition as well.
When Amichai Eliyahu became heritage minister in 2023, Otzma Yehudit MK Yitzhak Kroizer became an MK under the so-called Norwegian Law, which allows ministers and deputy ministers from large factions to resign from the Knesset, with their seats filled by members of their parties.
However, Eliyahu’s resignation from the cabinet did not push Kroizer out of the Knesset. Instead, it forced the resignation of Religious Zionism MK Zvi Sukkot, who held a lower spot on the two parties’ joint electoral list in the 2022 legislative election.
Eliyahu’s return to the Knesset will likely allow Sukkot to rejoin the Knesset as an MK.
Ben Gvir’s departure also left the coalition with a bare majority of 61 seats out of 120 in the Knesset, providing Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox allies with leverage to try and force the speedy passage of a bill exempting yeshiva students from military service.
Writing to the prime minister earlier this month, three MKs belonging to UTJ’s Hasidic Agudat Israel faction warned that they would vote against the 2025 state budget unless such legislation was passed first.
The 2025 state budget must be passed by the end of March or the government will automatically fall, triggering early elections. However, with the return of Otzma Yehudit, the ultra-Orthodox lawmakers have lost their leverage, further diminishing the already minuscule chance that the bill will be passed in the near future.
It remains unclear whether the party’s return to the government will bring about a reconciliation with MK Almog Cohen, who continued to vote with the coalition during his party’s time in the opposition — and has long been on the outs with his fellow Otzma Yehudit lawmakers.
“His place is in Likud and I wish him great success,” Ben Gvir told reporters in January, although Cohen has yet to be officially expelled from the party.
