Ben Gvir claims it was Smotrich — not him — who forced PM to leave hospital for Knesset votes

After his far-right party’s threat to vote against critical budget legislation and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left his hospital bed to ensure that the coalition had enough votes to pass it, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir says the real culprit is Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

In a lengthy statement explaining his party’s opposition to the legislation, Ben Gvir claims that the budget will harm law enforcement and “will directly result in a reduction in the number of police officers, the closure of police stations [and] the halting of critical security procurement.”

Smotrich has rejected Ben Gvir’s demands for a further budget increase for the police, which the latter oversees as national security minister, leading Otzma Yehudit to boycott today’s votes.

“It pained me greatly to see how Finance Minister Smotrich dragged the prime minister that we all love from his hospital bed, only because of his ego and his refusal to conduct any negotiations with me, despite pleas from the prime minister’s associates,” Ben Gvir declares.

Asked about Ben Gvir’s opposition to the measure, a coalition official tells The Times of Israel that the far-right politician “appears to want to topple the government because each week he changes his argument as to why he’s voting against the coalition.”