On shaky ground: Lapid meets with Netanyahu, coalition threatened from inside-out

Minister-without-portfolio Gadi Eisenkot (National Unity) criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday over his honesty and policies regarding Iran and Saudi Arabia. Under Netanyahu’s leadership, the cabinet had failed to govern properly and restore security, he said.

In response, the Likud said Eisenkot and Minister-without-portfolio Benny Gantz, National Unity’s chairman, were looking for excuses to “end the war without achieving its goals” and topple the government. Netanyahu had until June 8 to meet several conditions, Gantz said on May 18, or else he and his party would leave the government.

Gantz set the deadline for Netanyahu to present a comprehensive plan for “the day after” Hamas’s rule in Gaza, including freeing the hostages, installing a civilian governing body composed of both international and Palestinian officials, and enabling evacuees from the North to return home by September 1.

“Instead of engaging in the pursuit of victory, they are engaging in petty politics,” the Likud said in a press release.National Unity said Netanyahu had failed to bring victory on the battlefield and was wasting his time on maneuvering in a political minefield instead of a real one.

“Wars are not won with slogans,” National Unity said in a press release. “The eternal [Jewish] people are not afraid of the long journey.”

Labor Party MK Gilad Kariv also criticized Netanyahu. “His words give further validity to the feeling of the majority of the Israeli public,” he said. “Netanyahu is not qualified to lead the State of Israel at this complex time, and his continued rule constitutes a security, political, and economic danger.”

Kariv said National Unity should leave the government and called for new elections.

Channel 12 political commentator Amit Segal said Eisenkot’s remarks had been directed at the political Center, not the people who already agree with him. This could have a ripple effect since joining the government gave it legitimacy, especially against the protest movement, but that could now change, he said.

Netanyahu met with opposition leader Yair Lapid on Wednesday. The meeting lasted about 40 minutes and was attended by Military Secretary Roman Gofman, who was present throughout.

Deprivation and discrimination

Lapid also met on Wednesday with Minister-without-portfolio Gideon Sa’ar (National Unity) and Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman.

The coalition was on the verge of collapse, Lapid said Wednesday.

“The disagreements between them are deep,” he told the N12 news site. “That is clear to anyone who heard Eisenkot today.”

“We have been in talks this whole time,” Lapid said, referring to his meeting with Sa’ar and Liberman, “but there are no significant moves we can make until Gantz and Eisenkot pull out of the government. There are so many people walking around now with absolute hopelessness, even inside the Likud.

The cracks are there, and they will keep forming. This government is failing by every measure. Things are falling apart, and Likud MKs see that.”

The coalition suffered another attack when United Torah Judaism chairman Moshe Gafni threatened to leave the government if funding for haredi education was not addressed.

A kindergarten teacher in Kiryat Shmona was not receiving her salary because she is haredi, while secular teachers in Safed and Ma’alot had received theirs, he said in the Knesset plenum.

“I have to say that there is deprivation [and] discrimination, [and] it’s wrong,” Gafni said.

“The education system isn’t functioning in the North, yet the kindergarten teacher in Safed and the kindergarten teacher in Ma’alot received a salary,” he said. “Only if the kindergarten teacher is haredi she doesn’t receive a salary. The secular MKs disappointed me.”

“I have been in the Knesset for many, many years, and I was taught that everyone should receive the same salary; that there should be equality,” Gafni said. “Why does someone who lives and works in Kiryat Shmona with a low salary [not receive the same treatment]? Why doesn’t this kindergarten teacher who teaches children get the same salary?”

Israel Hayom quoted several officials in the Finance Ministry as saying Gafni was drumming up support among his haredi base, and the issue he raised had already been resolved the night before in a committee meeting.