From the Liveblog of
Monday, January 6, 2025
Ben Gvir said to leave MK who broke party discipline out of weekly Otzma Yehudit faction meeting
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. 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 holds his far-right Otzma Yehudit party’s weekly faction meeting without MK Almog Cohen, who last week broke party discipline to vote with the coalition on a key budget-related bill.
According to Hebrew media reports, the meeting was held in the National Security Ministry but Cohen was not informed, instead remaining behind in the Knesset while the rest of his party attended the gathering.
Retweeting a post by Army Radio journalist Shahar Glick breaking the news, Cohen writes simply, “The Summer of Almog,” a reference to a popular Israeli movie from the 1980s in which a young girl waits for people to arrive at her birthday party and no one turns up.
Asked by one social media user how he could not have been informed if his party has a parliamentary WhatsApp group, Cohen confirms that he did not receive an update but dismisses the incident as “no big deal.”
Responding to another online commenter who recommends he jump ship to Likud, Cohen tweets that he is “not engaging in politics when our holy soldiers are dismantling the enemy.”
Asked by the Knesset Channel if he and fellow Otzma Yehudit MK Zvika Fogel planned on splitting the party and striking out on their own, Cohen replies that he is “not involved in such an event.”
Yesterday, coalition whip Ofir Katz announced that legislation sponsored by Otzma Yehudit would be removed from the Knesset agenda due to the party’s pledge to continue voting against the government.
The Times of Israel Community.