Report: Barkat snipes at PM over aid to Gaza, reported openness to Palestinian state
Economy minister says cabinet hasn’t taken lessons from Oct. 7; charges Israel has ‘lost the north,’ as Hezbollah threat persists
Economy Minister Nir Barkat reportedly clashed with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Sunday’s cabinet meeting, panning the leader’s handling of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, apparently citing a report that he has not ruled out a Palestinian state, the entry of humanitarian aid into the Strip, and the prospect of continued attacks by Hezbollah in the north.
Barkat, seen as a potential contender to lead the ruling Likud party, accused “the cabinet of conception” of continuing to make decisions as if they “haven’t learned a thing from the black Saturday” on October 7, taking swipes at the prime minister during a security assessment, several news outlets reported.
“Whoever thinks of giving the prize of a Palestinian state after October 7 will find they don’t have a government,” the minister warned, according to Channel 12 and Ynet.
Barkat has clashed in the past with Netanyahu over how the combat in Gaza is being conducted, decrying the shift of military operations to a less intensive phase.
Over the past few days, Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected the idea of a fully-fledged Palestinian state, after CNN reported that he told US President Joe Biden he hadn’t ruled out a two-state solution completely.
The CNN report noted that Biden had found recent conversations among his administration’s officials on a potential demilitarized future Palestinian state to be “intriguing.” A US official has confirmed the CNN report to The Times of Israel.
Biden himself said late Friday that the creation of an independent state for Palestinians is not impossible even while Netanyahu is still in office and that the two leaders had discussed the issue during their phone call earlier Friday.
Several other coalition ministers also ruled out the creation of a Palestinian state in response to the CNN report, claiming that such a move would endanger Israel’s security and bolster its enemies.
Barkat also appeared to criticize Israel’s ongoing strategy along the northern border, decrying the lack of “a horizon for residents returning to the north,” according to the report.
“We have lost the north. We have 200,000 Israeli refugees [from the north and south]. We lost it completely if you think they will go back when across the border the Radwan forces are waiting,” he reportedly said, referring to the elite forces of the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group based in southern Lebanon.
Since October 8, 2023, a day after Hamas murdered some 1,200 people and kidnapped 253 in southern Israel, Hezbollah has engaged in cross-border fire on a near-daily basis, launching rockets, drones and missiles at northern Israel in a campaign it says is in support of Hamas as the terror group battles Israeli forces inside the Gaza Strip.
The attacks carried out by Hezbollah have forced some 80,000 residents of northern Israel to evacuate their homes, with no way of knowing when they will be able to safely return.
If Hezbollah cannot be made to retreat via diplomatic channels, Israel’s military leaders have repeatedly stated that they will be prepared to escalate the fighting.
Barkat then blasted the continuing entry of humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip while Hamas keeps holding onto 132 of the hostages it captured on October 7. Over 9,500 trucks have entered the Strip since Israel permitted aid to cross over on October 22, according to the IDF’s Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT).
International organizations and Israel’s allies, among them the United States, have pressured Israel to increase the rate of aid going into Gaza, in order to alleviate the growing humanitarian crisis in the enclave.
“It isn’t logical that we continue to supply goods, fuel, and flour to the Strip when our hostages are sitting in tunnels. It’s just ridiculous. There wasn’t a time in history where a country provided goods and fuel to an enemy state,” Barkat said, according to Channel 12.
Netanyahu reportedly replied: “It’s so that the world will let us continue the war.”
Barkat was said to respond: “You are still stuck in [old] conceptions.”
Netanyahu then charged there was “a danger of epidemics and diseases that can break out in Gaza,” to which Barkat responded: “What does the entry of goods and fuel have to do with preventing epidemics?”
Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli also reportedly chimed in, stating: “We are too humanitarian with Gaza and it is one-sided.”
