Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday night, saying he was excluded from crucial discussions and added, “We are not ornaments…you stand alone.”
What prompted Ben Gvir’s remarks was a security consultation immediately after the cabinet convened on Thursday night.
He told Netanyahu, “I understand that the real meeting is held right after ours. We are here as decoration, and after we finish you and Gallant sit with the heads of the security establishment and decide things. We are ornaments.”
“I tell you, Mr. Prime Minister, that if you make decisions alone, you will stand alone. Half a million people didn’t elect me to sit in the Cabinet while the security establishment makes all the decisions,” he said.
Gila Gamliel said to Ben Gvir, “You are making a threat.”
Ben Gvir responded, “I’m not making a threat. This is reality. If you decide alone that, you should not expect me to support the government afterward.”
When Ben Gvir was told that only a few ministers were involved in direct decision-making, he responded, “If I am not a partner, it means that you are excluding half a million people. In the end, you will be left alone.”
On Sunday night, Ben Gvir spoke with i24NEWS, threatening to bolt the coalition if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cuts a deal with Hamas to end the current war in Gaza permanently.
“We must not go for an agreement with Hamas, only wage a campaign against them. If the war stops – I will not be in the government,” Ben-Gvir said.
“How is it possible not to continue the war? Both the Prime Minister and the Defense Minister understand that it is impossible to go for a deal. We know what they want. They want to kill us because we are the Jewish state.”
“The Prime Minister knows very well that if the war stops, I will not be there. I said about Gaza, ‘If there is no war, I will not be there’, and the same is true for the north. We must have a war in the north. I am not threatening the Prime Minister. We must have a war because you do not make agreements with Nazis.”