From the Liveblog of
Friday, June 28, 2024
‘You can’t make deals with Nazis’: Far-right ministers spar with security chiefs at cabinet meet
Last night’s security cabinet meeting turned into another shouting match, as far-right ministers pushed for war with Hezbollah and laid into the IDF for failing to thwart Hamas’s October 7 onslaught.
One argument began after Defense Minister Yoav Gallant relayed to ministers that he had reiterated during his meetings this week in Washington Israel’s long-held position that it prefers a diplomatic solution to the escalating northern tensions as opposed to going to war with Hezbollah.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir shot back that calm on the border would not be restored without a war with Hezbollah. “Have we not learned anything from the past 20 years of [diplomatic] agreements? Within a year or two, they’ll rape our women and murder our children,” Ben Gvir said in remarks leaked to various Hebrew media outlets.
Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer then pointed out that even if Israel goes to war, it’ll eventually end with some kind of diplomatic agreement. Ben Gvir responded that an agreement with Hezbollah won’t be necessary because Israel will defeat the terror group.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chimed in, asserting that a diplomatic agreement with the right conditions is Israel’s preferred option.
Ben Gvir hit back: “An agreement with Hezbollah will lead to another October 7. You can’t make a deal with Nazis.
Later in the meeting, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called out IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi for remarks at a previous cabinet meeting when the army chief knocked ministers for refusing to take responsibility for the October 7 onslaught, as he had done. “Don’t lecture us on responsibility. We weren’t the ones who went to sleep on October 6,” Smotrich said.
“Take that back!” Halevi shot back.
Gallant then came to the IDF chief’s defense, saying he would not accept such unprecedented attacks on the army’s leaders by ministers.
Netanyahu interjected, but refused to take sides, saying both Smotrich’s remark at the meeting and Halevi’s at the last one were unacceptable.
