The Religious Zionist Party will take steps to bring down the government and hold elections if the Gaza occupation plan is not changed, a senior RZP official told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.
When asked about what redlines would need to be crossed for this to happen, the source said the party “does not want to define concrete redlines at this moment,” but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “understands the significance.”
“The decision of the cabinet [last Thursday] was, from the party’s perspective, a severe blow to the government and a retreat from the determination to truly achieve victory and the defeat of Hamas,” the source said.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the RZP chairman, on Saturday night said: “I feel I simply cannot stand behind this decision and support it.”
He said he no longer had confidence in Netanyahu as a leader.
According to reports, Smotrich had threatened during the cabinet meeting to dissolve the government. Nevertheless, he did not directly threaten to call for elections in his statement Saturday night.
Smotrich’s disappointment with Netanyahu’s plan was because it seemed to “aim for a [hostage-ceasefire] deal more than a full military occupation,” his associates said.
Smotrich had left the meeting “shaken and with heavy feelings,” RZP MK Zvi Sukkot to Kol Berama on Sunday.
Sukkot threatened to call for elections.
Smotrich and his RZP colleagues, Aliyah and Integration Minister Ofir Sofer, and National Missions Minister Orit Strock did not attend the Sunday cabinet meeting.
Yair Lapid calls on Smotrich to dissolve gov't
Opposition leader Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) on Sunday said Smotrich should help him bring down the government.
“Last night, you officially announced to the public in Israel that you have lost faith in the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu,” he wrote.
“It is clear to every minister of finance and minister of defense, [and] chairman of a coalition party that one cannot sit in a government whose head he does not believe in – and certainly not when this position is stated explicitly and publicly,” he added.
“I call on you to join me in submitting [the request] to the speaker of the Knesset and to inform him that due to the reasons you have clearly stated in your remarks, you strongly support the dissolution of the Knesset and the holding of elections,” Lapid wrote.
In July, Lapid began collecting signatures to launch a process for a bill to disperse the Knesset, which would lead to an election.
Lapid would need the signatures of at least 61 MKs to file a request to approve the proposal. This is because the previous attempt to pass the bill had failed on June 12, and barring Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana’s approval, an identical bill cannot be proposed for six months.
Eliav Breuer and Amichai Stein contributed to this report.