From the Liveblog of
Sunday, September 15, 2024
Ministers pepper deputy AG over alleged bias, push for response to hostage slayings
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"
Members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet urged the firing of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, complained about incitement against the premier, and argued that Israel has not reacted “strongly enough” to the deaths of hostages at the hands of Hamas at Sunday’s cabinet meeting, according to Hebrew language media reports.
During the meeting, Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi railed against “incitement against the prime minister and the government,” slamming a since-deleted tweet by prominent government critic Ilan Shiloah, who compared Netanyahu and far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir to Adolf Hitler and SS chief Heinrich Himmler, according to the leaked comments.
After Deputy Attorney General Gil Limon told ministers that he was unaware of the tweet, Netanyahu expressed consternation, stating that “hundreds” of people had reached out to him about it. Despite Limon’s contention that the post may not rise to the level of a criminal violation, both Ben Gvir and Settlements and National Projects Minister Orit Strock insisted that double standards are being used, and Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs ordered Limon to provide an update within a week regarding whether or not an investigation has been opened into the matter, the reports detail.
Strock also asked why the government needs to listen to Baharav-Miara’s recent order to cut daycare subsidies for the children of ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students, inviting a fresh pile-on, transcripts show.
“The attorney general and Gil Limon should have been fired on the first day of the government, and if not then on the second,” declared Regional Cooperation Minister David Amsalem.
“If it was Arabs or Bedouins and not Haredim, we know exactly what your position would be,” Ben Gvir told Limon. “When Arabs or Bedouins build illegal outposts in the Negev, they said that they must be connected to the water because there are children. If it’s Arab or Bedouin children, that’s fine and you come to their defense, but if it’s Haredi children, then no.”
The attorney general “wants to bring down the government,” claimed Labor Minister Yoav Ben-Tzur.
The meeting also saw Ben Gvir and others press Netanyahu on the lack of a military response to the slaying of six Israeli hostages in Gaza, reports say.
“Ben Gvir is right. Every day that goes by and we don’t react means that we are coming to terms with the horror,” said Education Minister Yoav Kisch, calling for part of Gaza’s territory to be taken in response to the killings.
“There is a feeling that we are talking a lot and not reacting strongly enough,” added Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli.
