From the Liveblog of
Sunday, August 10, 2025
Religious Zionism MK: Without an aggressive Gaza war plan, ‘we need an election’
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. 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"
Religious Zionism MK Zvi Sukkot appears to threaten to bring down the government unless it adopts a more aggressive strategy in Gaza, arguing that “if we return to October 6, 2023, and decide to abandon the war’s objectives, it is an existential danger to the State of Israel.”
“If this is the situation, in my humble opinion we need to go to elections,” he tweets.
Sukkot’s post follows a video message by Religious Zionism chairman Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich last night in which he said that he no longer believes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is willing to do what it takes to win the war, and called the security cabinet’s approval on Thursday of a plan to conquer Gaza City a half-measure.
Smotrich said that he was previously able to set aside his reservations because he believed that “we were striving for a decisive victory,” but that now he has “lost faith that the prime minister is able and wants to lead the IDF to a decisive victory.”
According to national broadcaster Kan, Smotrich threatened to bring down the government and force a new election during Thursday night’s cabinet meeting.
“From my perspective we can stop everything and let the people decide,” he was quoted as saying.
The Times of Israel Community.