From the Liveblog of
Monday, January 22, 2024
Government has choice of continuing war or returning hostages, Labor chief says
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"
The government can either continue fighting in Gaza or it can bring the hostages home, outgoing Labor chairwoman Merav Michaeli declares, reiterating her plan to to call for a no-confidence vote against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Since October 7, we have refrained from taking this step, but for 108 days we have seen that this government is busy with everything… but the hostages,” Michaeli says at Labor’s weekly faction meeting.
“The Labor faction will call a motion of no confidence today against a delinquent government that has been neglecting its sons and daughters, held prisoner by Hamas for 108 days,” she says.
“In order to bring our hostages home we must also be prepared to stop fighting. You can’t keep muttering ‘bringing the hostages home is above all else.’ You can’t keep on lying that ‘only total victory will ensure the elimination of Hamas and the return of all our hostages.’ It will take a very long time to bring down Hamas, time that we do not have. And time that they don’t have. And we don’t have time to keep putting them in clear and immediate danger, day after day after day.”
In a joint statement earlier today, the heads of the coalition parties declared that they would “not take part in political shows during wartime,” including the debate and vote on Labor’s motion.
“They’re s-c-a-r-e-d,” Michaeli tweets in response.
