Jewish Home seethes as Netanyahu ‘dismisses’ deputy defense minister
Deepening crisis, PM pushes off vote to reinstate Eli Ben Dahan after he automatically loses job with Liberman’s resignation
Raoul Wootliff is a former Times of Israel political correspondent and Daily Briefing podcast producer.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delayed a vote on Sunday to reinstate a senior Jewish Home party member as deputy defense minister, drawing a furious response from the right-wing coalition party, as the government teetered on the verge of collapse.
With Avigdor Liberman’s resignation as defense minister coming into effect on Sunday morning, Deputy Minister Eli Ben Dahan of the Jewish Home party also lost his job. According to government protocol, a deputy minister’s term automatically ends with the firing or resignation of the minister above them.
Days after party chairman Naftali Bennett demanded he be made defense minister, the Jewish Home party said Netanyahu on Sunday had effectively fired Ben Dahan by postponing the vote.
It said the party would not vote with the coalition until the decision was reversed. Netanyahu’s move is “unfair” and “unjustified,” the party fumed.
The Prime Minister’s Office said “the issue will be dealt with in the coming days.”
Liberman announced his resignation from the government on Wednesday after condemning Israel’s ceasefire with Hamas following a deadly exchange in the south.
Filing his resignation letter on Thursday, his official departure only took hold on Sunday morning, 48 working hours later, triggering Ben Dahan’s firing from the ministry at the same time.

The Jewish Home had requested that Ben Dahan — who served as deputy defense minister under Moshe Ya’alon from 2015 and kept the job when Liberman took over a year later — be immediately reappointed.
The party said Netanyahu had promised to hold a required vote on the appointment at the Sunday’s cabinet meeting, but pushed off the ministerial ballot, effectively firing Ben Dahan.
In a statement released after the cabinet meeting, the Jewish Home called on Netanyahu to rescind his decision to “dismiss” Ben Dahan, saying it was “an unfair and unjust act against an honest and worthy public figure.” The party also said that the prime minister would not and has not treated other coalition partners in the same way.
The move deepens a coalition crisis that has taken hold since Liberman’s resignation, with Ben Dahan saying in a statement that the move “breaks a coalition agreement” that must be respected.

Following Liberman’s Wednesday announcement, Bennett’s Jewish Home presented an ultimatum to Netanyahu, with the party saying it will leave the coalition and force new elections if Bennett is not made defense minister.
Bennett was reported on Saturday to have agreed with Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon to push for national elections to be held on March 26, 2019.
The report came as both Bennett and Kahlon voiced their clear support for a national vote well ahead of November 2019, when the current government’s term is set to end. On Sunday, before the postponement of the vote on Ben Dahan, Jewish Home officials told The Times of Israel: “There is still a possibility that the government would be able to continue. However, the slim majority of 61 would make that highly unlikely, given some of the important legislation that remains on the docket for the remainder of the Knesset.”
Netanyahu was scheduled to meet Kahlon Sunday evening.