Saturday, May 6, 2023

Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir, still not speaking

Sources close to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir have said Thursday that the disconnect between the two is still ongoing, Yediot Aharonot reported.

According to the sources, no meeting or conversation has been scheduled between the two.

Ben-Gvir is demanding to meet with Netanyahu, to receive his promise that there will be a change in policy and that the public will receive what it was promised - a "fully right-wing government."

Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu (Otzma Yehudit) on Thursday embarrassed the Netanyahu government by claiming that the previous government, led by former Prime Ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, fought terror better than the current government.

"The Bennett government responded more strongly to Hamas than the Netanyahu government," Eliyahu told the Knesset Channel.

Bennett himself responded to the statement by tweeting, "Precisely."

Meanwhile, the Shas party also seems to be losing patience: In an article published in Haderech, a party spokesman wrote that the government does not have a right to exist if MK Aryeh Deri is not a minister, and that the ministers should boycott all of the Knesset votes until a Basic Law is passed on the matter, stipulating that the Supreme Court will not be able to hold a judicial review of ministerial appointments.