Likud MK booted from Knesset panel blasts Katz for reportedly comparing him to left-wing party head

MK Amit Halevi slams Defense Minister Israel Katz after his fellow Likud politician reportedly compared him to left-wing The Democrats chairman Yair Golan, who this morning sparked widespread condemnations by accusing Israel of killing babies in Gaza “as a hobby.”

According to Hebrew media, Katz harshly criticized Halevi in an internal Likud chat over his opposition to a government-backed measure to extend the government’s ability to issue emergency call-up orders for IDF reservists.

Halevi voted against the measure earlier this week, leading Likud to remove him from the powerful Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Halevi said his opposition was motivated by his doubts about the IDF’s latest offensive in Gaza, dubbed Operation Gideon’s Chariots. Halevi protested the fact that “according to this plan, aid will continue to reach Hamas, it will continue to control a large area and population, and thus the enemy will not be defeated.”

Citing Channel 14, the Maariv daily reported that Katz directly compared Halevi to Golan, writing that he would “not allow anyone to harm IDF soldiers.”

“Amit Halevi from the Likud is slandering the heroic commanders of the Southern Command…a blood libel as if they are abandoning the fighters in Gaza” in the middle of the war, he reportedly wrote.

In response, Halevi releases a statement asserting that “the only one who is creating libels here is Minister Israel Katz with false quotes and a lack of even a basic security understanding of what I claimed in the committee.”

“As was clearly reported to us in the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee: the ‘Gideon Chariots’ plan, even if successful, will leave Hamas in control of the territory, the population, and aid. The operation does not include a tight siege before soldiers enter on foot, as was rightly suggested by 10 IDF major generals in the generals’ plan,” he writes.

“This is not the way to defeat Hamas, this is the way to continue the waffling that has been exacting terrible prices from us for over 20 months,” Halevi continues.

In the wake of Halevi’s removal, the committee held another vote on Tuesday in which it approved the measure. Following Tuesday’s vote, committee chairman Yuli Edelstein called on his Likud party to restore Halevi, whom he called a “hardworking, diligent and opinionated parliamentarian.”