Liberman confirmation pushed off over Bennett ultimatum

The Knesset postponed a plenum vote scheduled for Monday to approve the appointment of Avigdor Liberman as defense minister, after Jewish Home party chairman Naftali Bennett threatened to vote against the appointment and quit the coalition over his demands for greater intelligence-sharing in the high-level security cabinet.

A Jewish Home veto of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pick for the sensitive post would torpedo the newly inked deal that saw Liberman’s five-member Yisrael Beytenu party join the Likud-led governing coalition, part of a months-long efforts by the prime minister to expand his wafer-thin Knesset majority.

Netanyahu’s current 61-seat coalition needs Jewish Home’s eight votes to pass Liberman’s appointment in the 120-member Knesset.

Bennett, a senior cabinet member, is demanding Netanyahu appoint a military attaché for each member of the sensitive 10-member inner 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.

“We are not demanding jobs and not demanding money. We are asking to save people’s lives. Human life is more important than government portfolios. I will continue to fight to protect IDF soldiers and the residents of the Gaza periphery no matter where I am, from within the government or outside it,” Bennett said Sunday.

Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein on Sunday urged the Jewish Home and Likud parties to cut a deal quickly to avoid new 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 in the day, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, also a member of Jewish Home, insisted new elections were “a possibility” if the prime minister did not accede to the party’s demands for the security cabinet reform.

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

Meanwhile, Kulanu party leader Moshe Kahlon 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, the 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.”

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 by 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, 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 majority 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 Jewish Home is no longer in the coalition,” Hanegbi told Channel 2 on Saturday.

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

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.”

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.