Ministers Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked will hold a press conference Monday morning at 10:30 (not a common time for newsmaking appearances, but vital should hectic negotiations follow) to announce whether they are resigning or staying in the government.
Sources in Habayit Hayehudi have told several Israeli news outlets that should Bennett not receive the defense portfolio, he and Shaked are expected to announce their resignations, along with their 8-member Knesset faction, which would cut the Netanyahu coalition down to 53, well below the 61 votes needed.
Bennett and Shaked have the support of their faction’s partner Tekuma, represented by Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel and MK Bezalel Smotrich. Tkuma announced, however that they would vote according to the instructions of their rabbinical leadership, and if the Rabbis decide, “we will vote on the Knesset’s dissolution on Wednesday.”
The prime minister on Sunday night met with the finance minister, whose Kulanu faction has 10 seats in the Knesset – and the meeting ended without Kulanu’s approval for giving Bennett the defense portfolio. Netanyahu then announced that he intends to keep defense in his own hands.
In a special statement to the media, the PM called on coalition leaders to act responsibly and to protect the government because of the sensitive security situation – which Bennett et al say he and former DM Avigdor Liberman have been bumbling.
“Today I am entering the post of defense minister for the first time, and I know that I do so while there is criticism of Israel’s security policy,” Netanyahu said, explaining: “A large part of the criticism stems from the fact that for obvious reasons I can’t present the full details of what the chief of staff, the IDF generals, the head of the Shin Bet, the head of the Mossad and I know. Therefore you see only a partial picture of a large-scale campaign that we are still in the midst of and which I am obliged to complete in order to bring full security to the residents of the south and all the residents of Israel.”
In a country where every citizen is a general or knows one from school, few bought Netanyahu’s explanation of the humiliation of the IDF and Israel since Passover by gangs of Arab rioters at the Gaza border fence, the burning of thousands of acres of farmland and nature preserves, the night of some 450 rockets last week, the $15 million delivery to Hamas and the sense that the terrorists are calling the shots.
Bennett, who has been critical of the defense apparatus and chomps at the bit to revolutionize the decision-making process of the IDF, has gone out on a limb (sorry for including two metaphors in one paragraph) with his ultimatum to the PM. Should he give in this morning, it would earn him a few months in power but cost him in the coming elections, be it in March, May or November.