From the Liveblog of
Monday, June 3, 2024
Ben Gvir: Netanyahu ‘whitewashing’ contents of hostage deal proposal
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"
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir accuses Prime Minister Netanyahu of whitewashing the contents of the latest hostage deal proposal after the premier allegedly refused to disclose the full contents of the hostage deal outline announced by US President Joe Biden on Friday night.
Addressing reporters at the Knesset, Ben Gvir says Netanyahu insisted that the actual proposal differs from the version presented by Biden and that “there will be no reckless deal and an end to the war without the collapse of Hamas.”
“I asked him if I could look at the draft of the agreement, and he agreed and said that I could come to his office so that I could see the draft with my own eyes,” Ben Gvir says, but yesterday when he arrived he was told “there is no draft” by Netanyahu’s assistants.
“This morning I also went to the Prime Minister’s Office, and there, once again, they refused to present the draft agreement to me,” he says, asserting that National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi likewise denied that such a draft existed.
“If the deal is not reckless and does not include a commitment to end the war for Hamas’s collapse, why do you refuse to present it to me?” the far-right minister asks, accusing Netanyahu of “whitewashing” the outline.
“If you sign a reckless deal that will bring an end to the war without the collapse of Hamas, Otzma Yehudit will dissolve the government,” he says.
