From the Liveblog of
Monday, February 5, 2024
Doubling down, Ben Gvir says that the Biden administration ‘must stop pressuring us’
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"
Far right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir doubles down on his criticism of the Biden administration in comments at a faction meeting, a day after he was heavily criticized — including by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — for similar remarks to the Wall Street Journal.
“We value America, we love the administration, but we need to change the way we operate,” he declares at the start of his Otzma Yehudit party’s weekly faction meeting. “I’m not sweeping the complex reality facing the Biden administration under the table. America is our ally, our friend, but the Biden administration must stop pressuring us, bringing in fuel and humanitarian equipment that ends up going to Hamas,” he says.
“I go my own way. I don’t blink. I don’t fold,” he continues, alleging that someone close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had instructed Likud lawmakers to “attack” him.
“Prime minister, I know you are at a crossroads today. You can and should choose,” he says, echoing his comments in the Wall Street Journal — and urging Netanyahu to repudiate the policies of his war cabinet, which is a path “that has proven its mistakes time and time again.”
“I hope that the prime minister of Israel will decide and choose the path of Otzma Yehudit, not the path of Lapid and Gantz.”
