PM blames previous government for terror wave; reinstates Defense Minister Gallant
Facing dire polls and growing public anger and anxiety over the recent terror wave, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a press conference in which he blames the previous government and the protest movement against the government of recent months for the rash of attacks.
“Our country is under a terrorist assault,” he says. But it “did not start now.”
Netanyahu claims the previous government showed weakness, emboldening Israel’s enemies.
“Under the previous government the number of terror attacks doubled,” he says. “The previous government handed over gas territory to the enemy without anything in return.”
He asserts that warnings of army reserves that they might refuse service if his government moves forward with its plans to shackle the judiciary also sent a similar message.
Netanyahu also blames opposition leader Yair Lapid, saying when the latter warns of national collapse due to the overhaul, “our enemies see this, they hear this… They believe they can take us on, with combined terror from Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza.”
“But now it’s our watch, it’s our responsibility. It’s my responsibility,” Netanyahu says.
“You know me. I don’t act rashly. I act resolutely and determinedly and above all I act responsibly,” Netanyahu says. “I tell you tonight, people of Israel, we will rebuff these threats and we will defeat our enemies. We’ve done so in the past and we’ll do so again.”
“We’ll reestablish deterrence, we’ll fix the damages we inherited,” he says, and any enemies who think this is an opportunity to attack “are hugely mistaken.”
When a reporter notes that the previous government had seen 33 people killed in a year, while 19 people have died in the 100 days since Netanyahu’s government entered office, the premier says that the previous government was dependent on “the Muslim Brotherhood,” — a reference to the Islamist Ra’am party — and so “couldn’t act against terror.”
He also says Defense Minister Yoav Gallant will remain in his post, following weeks of uncertainty after the premier announced the minister’s dismissal, but did not follow through, due to massive protests.
“We had disagreements, even serious disagreements,” he says of relations with Gallant. “But I have decided to put the arguments behind us.”
Netanyahu says he cannot give details on “everything we are doing” for Israel’s security “but we are doing a lot.”
He says Israel has “acted against Iranian targets in Syria.”
During Q&A after his speech, commenting on plans to form a National Guard under far-right police minister Itamar Ben Gvir, Netanyahu says the Guard is “necessary,” but “will not be anyone’s militia,” rather “a proper, professional security force answerable to one of the security apparatuses.”
Ben Gvir squeezed an agreement from Netanyahu to quickly move to form the force in exchange for the minister agreeing to delay the judicial overhaul late last month. Critics have asserted Ben Gvir wants to form the force to have more direct power over internal policing.
He says he is trying to reach “broad agreement” on the “reform… to restore the appropriate balance between the branches of government.”
“This won’t be a theocracy,” he says, adding that he intends “to entrench individual rights” in law.
