Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to show National Security Minister Itamar-Ben-Gvir the draft text of the hostage deal proposal that US President Joe Biden presented in a speech on Friday night.
Ben-Gvir, who spoke ahead of his party's weekly faction meeting, claimed that on Saturday night, Netanyahu had promised to show him the text, but the prime minister then refrained from doing so.Ben-Gvir added that National Security Council head Tzahi Hanegby had even told him that such a text did not exist.
Ben-Gvir demanded in his speech to see the text and threatened to leave the government if Netanyahu moved forward with the deal without doing so.Ben-Gvir argued that the deal was de-facto a loss to Hamas, as it left open the possibility of Hamas continuing to exist at war's end.
The speech was initially supposed to be held in the party's meeting room in the Knesset. However, a number of family members of hostages came to the room, and appeared to be preparing to disrupt him.
Ben-Gvir changes the venue
Instead of entering the room, Ben-Gvir therefore changed the venue to a nearby room at the last minute. Guards blocked everyone except for the media from entering the room, and the family members were heard shouting in the hallway that Ben-Gvir was "afraid" to meet with them.
Asked about the occurrence, Ben-Gvir said that he meets families of hostages regularly but that the attempt to disrupt his speech was "populistic."
Netanyahu responded to the occurrence immediately, saying in a video statement, "We are acting in endless ways to bring back our hostages." Netanyahu admitted that he had "gone a long way" towards a deal, but had maintained the goals of the war throughout, "chiefly amongst them destroying Hamas."
"We are insisting that we complete both [the release of hostages and destruction of Hamas]. That is part of the plan [that Biden presented], it is not something that I am adding now, it is not something I am adding because I was pressured by the coalition, it is something we decided in the war cabinet unanimously," Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu's reluctance to show Ben-Gvir the text of the hostage deal came on the backdrop of the fact that the deal was not presented to the statutory National Security Cabinet, reportedly due to fear of leaks by Ben-Gvir and others.
Smotrich comments
Later on Monday afternoon, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich held his weekly press conference outside of a tent set up by the Heroes Forum outside of Israel's Supreme Court. The forum includes families of fallen soldiers and advocates for a strategy whereby the only way to bring back the hostages was with military pressure on Hamas.
According to a spokesperson in Smotrich's Religious Zionist Party, the unusual choice of location, instead of the party's conference room in the Knesset, was intended to emphasize the argument that Smotrich made in his speech: That the proposal presented by Biden was "dangerous" in that it did not completely destroy Hamas.Smotrich also argued that the fact that the proposal was not brought before the National Security Cabinet made it "illegal," and was not binding for Israel or its government. In general the war cabinet has the authority to manage the tactical aspects of the war, while any major policy or strategic decisions must be brought before the NSC.
"I told the prime minister, we, together with the bereaved families and the majority of the people of Israel, will back you for decisive victory, but will oppose you with all our strength and forcefulness if you choose surrender and defeat," Smotrich said.
United Torah Judaism (UTJ) chairman, Construction Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf was cited as saying in Israeli media on Monday that his party would support any proposed hostage deal that would bring about the release of the hostages.