PM tells talkative ministers to ‘speak less’

Netanyahu now takes aim at unnamed cabinet ministers with their public criticisms and “empty slogans.”

He tells them to do what he said he did in the past, as opposition leader or cabinet minister, which is: give backing to the government. “Give support and speak less,” he urges.

Ya’alon weighs in on the same issue, slamming unacceptable public criticism “while we are burying our dead.”

The PM says ministers have had every opportunity to speak at 27 cabinet meetings since the start of the operation, but should not broadcast criticism in public.

Netanyahu says that most of the Arab world is opposed to Hamas, and that it is far most isolated than it seems.

“Who supports Hamas? Qatar, Turkey, Iran. Who else? Qatar, Turkey, Iran,” he repeats. “The Arab world is against it.”

Asked about his talk of a new “political horizon,” Netanyahu says the Hamas threat underlines his insistence on a demilitarized West Bank — something he says he has stressed to the US. Otherwise, he says, “who is going to prevent them manufacturing rockets in Nablus?”

He says Islamic State is only half as strong as Hamas, but “look at what it can do” in terms of terrorism. “This was not understood” previously.

Two things have changed, he says: “It is much easier for us to explain our security considerations.” And there is “change in the regional constellation that may create new possibilities.”