Coalition crisis - Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman handed in his resignation

Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman handed in his resignation. He announced on Wednesday during a special meeting of his party MK members, Yisrael Beiteinu, that he would resign as defense minister. In a statement to the press. Lieberman announced the move and called for a new date for elections as soon as possible. He announced the convening of the meeting about a day after the end of the round of escalation against Hamas. A senior Likud official said after the announcement of Lieberman's resignation: "We do not have to go to elections, the case will go to Netanyahu."

"What happened yesterday regarding the arrangement with Hamas is submission to terrorism," Lieberman declared. "We have no other definition or meaning, and we as a country buy quiet for the short term at the price of harm to long-term security."
Lieberman's statement came after weeks of clashes between him and Prime Minister Netanyahu on various security issues, including the appointment of the chief of staff and the situation in the south: "It is no secret that there have been disagreements in recent months with the prime minister, as in the matter of the introduction of Qatari fuel." Said that he had to agree to the move only after the prime minister issued a written order on the matter, as well as the issue of the evacuation of Khan al-Ahmar in Judea and Samaria.

Lieberman noted two turning points, which he said led to his decision. "The first is the introduction of $ 15 million into the Gaza Strip, which went through cash in suitcases," he said. "Anyone who says that control or supervision is simply not accurate, to put it mildly, the second turning point - the cease-fire, all 500 rockets fired at Israel - the response was inappropriate and it is impossible to accept it."

"I know all the circumstances, the intelligence, the excuses and the explanations," Lieberman claimed. "If there were always North, South, East, and West, we would have to end the story of the south, first of all, the same weakness we have shown to other arenas, too. , Not of the Shaul and Goldin families, and not of the two families of the citizens held by Hamas. "

During the press conference, Lieberman stressed that he had decided to resign due to material considerations and not because of political considerations. "I never stuck to a chair," he said. "When there was a contradiction between chairs and principles - we chose principles." In this context, Lieberman mentioned the disengagement plan, the Shalit deal, and the issue of reconciliation and apology to Turkey as examples of his opposition.
With the announcement of his resignation, Lieberman called on the rest of the coalition parties to conclude a date for the elections as quickly as possible. "We, too, are Yisrael Beiteinu, and I am also expected to attack the officials on behalf of the party and the commentators on behalf of them, but we have dealt with harder things and I am certain that we will deal with that as well. However, in response to the question of Walla! News said that he had not yet spoken with the coalition partners on the subject and noted that on Sunday he and his faction members would submit their resignation.

Prime Minister Netanyahu has already begun political consultations with his close associates in Jerusalem. Netanyahu will try to examine whether it is possible to stabilize the coalition and move on. "
The confrontation between Lieberman and Netanyahu became public after a tense cabinet meeting on the Gaza ceasefire. During the meeting, which lasted for about six hours, the chief of staff, the head of the Shin Bet and the head of the Mossad briefed ministers on the attacks and the extensive operations in Gaza in recent days and the mediation proposals that came to the prime minister's office - Egypt, the United Nations, Norway and Switzerland.
According to diplomatic sources, the position of the heads of the security establishment was that the Egyptian proposal should be accepted and returned to a pattern of calm vis-à-vis Hamas, with the IDF maintaining freedom of action and the right to react if terror and violence from the Gaza Strip were renewed. Who opposed and called for a more aggressive approach vis-a-vis Hamas, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman and ministers Naftali Bennett, Ayelet Shaked and Ze'ev Elkin voiced opposition to the decision to return to calm, but their position was not accepted.