Posted on 11/15/2018 12:12:44 PM PST by Eleutheria5
Kulanu party leader Moshe Kahlon told Prime Minister Netanyahu that he will not accept Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett serving as defense minister, following the resignation of current defense minister, Avigdor Liberman.
On Wednesday, Bennett issued an ultimatum to the Prime Minister, saying his Jewish Home faction will quit the coalition if he is not appointed defense minister. If Bennett's ultimatum holds, Kahlon's veto likely signals that early elections are on the way.
"Bennett doesn't have it coming to get the Defense Ministry portfolio. I'm opposed to it," Kahlon told Netanyahu.
Bennett told confidants in response that he will not accept any other portfolio. "I will not agree to compromises. Not the Foreign Ministry or anything else - only defense," he said.
Bennett currently serves as Education Minister and Minister for Diaspora Affairs.
The coalition's future appears shaky after both Kiulanu Chairman Moshe Kahlon and Shas head Aryeh Deri called for new elections on Thursday.
Jewish Home officials said Wednesday that despite warnings that Liberman’s resignation would likely spell the end of the current government and the 20th Knesset, a narrow coalition could be kept in place into 2019.
The Netanyahu government currently holds a 66-seat majority in the 120 member Knesset. With Yisrael Beytenu’s departure, that majority has now been reduced to just 61 seats.
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(Excerpt) Read more at israelnationalnews.com ...
Who would ypu loke to see succeed him?
There’s that fellow Bibi’s always been keeping out of the Knesset within the Likud, there’s Bennett, and there’s Liberman.
This is really Israeli election season, which must take place in November 2019 at the latest, and now maybe as early as February or so.
Avigdor Lieberman is basically challenging Netanyahu’s weaker and compromising national security policies, while Moshe Kahlon plays the equivalent of America’s GOP-E.
It’s a mess.
“We want Moshiach now!”
Hamas fires hundreds of missiles and Israel gives them a time out to reload.
Bennett is consistent for wanting to more forcefully hold Hamas responsible for its attacks. I think he is right, a ceasefire should only come after an ass whooping.
Considering the Trump Administration’s backing for Israel’s defense, Netanyahu is being exposed as weaker on defense than he claims. He deserves to be challenged. That’s assuming that the Trump Administration isn’t just talking tough in public, but pressuring Israel for ‘restraint’ in private.
He was never weak on uprooting outposts; brutal, vicious raids in the middle of the night on families sleeping in their plywood huts with dirt floors. He had Ehud Barak do the dirty deeds, via Druze soldiers he kept just for that purpose, in case the Jewish soldiers should balk.
There’s another story around that Naftali Bennett was going to resign, and Lieberman got word of it and resigned first. Election season.
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