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A NUMBER OF Israeli MPs have threatened to resign from Cabinet if it ratifies a “reckless” ceasefire deal with Hamas, but this would not likely scupper the controversial agreement.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s national security minister and head of the ultra-nationalist Jewish Power, has threatened to leave his cabinet post along with other cabinet members in protest over the deal.
His resignation from that position would be more of a symbolic move rather than a consequential blow to the cabinet’s ability to implement the ceasefire.
This is due to his unwillingness to completely withdraw his party from the coalition as doing so in conjunction with other dissenting parties would topple the delicate balance of power in Netanyahu’s slim majority government, which Ben-Gvir promises he does not intend to do.
He addressed the agreement in a televised statement yesterday in which he claimed it will undo all progress made in Israel’s 15-month bombardment of Gaza.
“The deal that is taking shape is a reckless deal,” he said, stating that it would “erase the achievements of the war” by permitting the release of Palestinian militants, many of whom have been convicted of terrorist offences, back into the ranks of Hamas.
“If this irresponsible deal is approved and implemented, we the members of Jewish Power will submit letters of resignation to the prime minister.”
Finance Minister and leader of the Religious Zionist Party, Bezalel Smotrich, is also on record as having made mild threats to pull his party from the coalition entirely, a move which could doom the government and thus derail the ceasefire.
However, there is no evidence that these threats are substantial.
The conditions of the ceasefire were agreed upon by Israeli and Hamas negotiators in Doha on Wednesday and were approved this morning by Netanyahu’s security cabinet which endorsed the deal as supporting “achieving the war objectives”.
It is expected to be further ratified by Netanyahu’s 34-member parliamentary cabinet in a vote later today, ensuring its implementation from Sunday.
In the first phase of the “permanent” agreement announced by the Qatari Prime Minister on Wednesday, 33 of the 94 remaining Israeli hostages held captive by Hamas in Gaza will be exchanged for the release by Israel of several hundred Palestinian prisoners.
This first phase is projected to last six weeks from Sunday, during which both sides will refrain from armed conflict.
The deal also stipulates that Israel Defence Forces (IDF) will withdraw from densely populated areas of Gaza.
Ben-Gvir has also called for all flows of humanitarian aid to Gaza to be “completely stopped”.
Ben-Gvir’s calls coincided with large public protests in Jerusalem by bereaved families of dead hostages on Wednesday and Thursday which took place at the Prime Minister’s Office in opposition to the deal.
Why has Israel delayed agreeing to the deal?
On Thursday, the day after the ceasefire was agreed, Netanyahu claimed that he would delay his cabinet’s vote after he alleged that Hamas was “reneging” on the terms set out between both parties during negotiations.
Gaza’s civil defence reports that the subsequent resumption of Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip have claimed the lives of 113 Palestinians, including 28 children and 31 women, within hours of the initial agreement being made.
A statement by Netanyahu’s office said on Thursday: “Hamas is reneging on the understandings and creating a last-minute crisis that is preventing an agreement,” delaying his cabinet’s meeting to discuss the issue.
The statement added: “The Israeli cabinet will not convene until the mediators notify Israel that Hamas has accepted all elements of the agreement.”
The BBC reports that a demand by Hamas to add certain additional names to the agreed list of Palestinian prisoners to be released by Israel was a significant element responsible for the delay in the cabinet vote.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken echoed Israel’s version of events, describing the contentious issue as a simple “loose end” which will be tied up in time for the implementation of the ceasefire which had been hoped to begin on Sunday.
If Netanyahu’s cabinet votes in favour of the deal, it would represent the most significant breakthrough in securing peace between Israel and Hamas.
Due to kick in on the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration, it will allow for the gradual return of all Israeli hostages and the beginning of a rebuild of Gaza estimated to cost €18 billion.
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War criminal ne tennya hoo
@Dave f Doe: cancer will have a thing or two to say about his”living” status soon
Comments are open and yet no comments ? People comment on this topic all the time …
Calm before the storm
@offside again: People are not exercised by peace, they like a little bit of cut and thrust, it allows them to take sides!
@Liam Money: what ?
@Brian Hunt: mad world.
@Liam Money: It clear who doesn’t have a life with some hanging around numerous comment sections like a bad smell.
Are Islamic Hamas changing their doctrine and now believe that all people are children of God/Allah.
@thomas molloy: no.
@thomas molloy: Leopards don’t change their spots!
@thomas molloy: What does the Irish Times have to say on the matter Tommy ? I await your quote from your favourite MSM outlet..
This is one of the worst deals that I’ve ever seen. 33 hostages (of which 10 are dead bodies) for 1,000 Hamas terrorists as well as making the IDF pull out of Gaza completely? What an absolute joke. Thanks Donald Trump, you’re not even in office and you’re already screwing over your allies to placate your own ego so you can brag “there were no wars again during my second term” or whatever other dopey isolationist rubbish that he’ll come out with. He doesn’t care that this deal will lead to more terrorist attacks against Israel like the 2011 one did, he just wants a Nobel Peace Prize because he’s still jealous that Obama got one. The only deal that should have been on the table was a total and unconditional surrender for Hamas. Shame on you Trump and anyone in your cabinet that pushed this.
@William Jennings: isreali IDF are terrorists, occupied people have every right to resist occupation just like the Jews of the Warsaw ghettos! What don’t you understand??
@Dave f Doe: you are a psychopath like the zio looneys in Palestine..
@joe moody: how much of Gaza was “occupied” before Oct 7th?
Most civilised people, not those who shout loudest here, believe death is wrong, death of Jews is wrong, death of Palestinians is wrong. It is odd so many of you have nothing much to say about Yemen, Syria, Sudan, Ethiopia? You all just seem so occupied when the Jews are involved, odd that, very odd.
@joe moody: Do you understand basic history, you absolute plank? Israel completely disengaged from Gaza in 2005. They left behind greenhouses, water desalination plants, irrigation infrastructure and a fully operational power plant that they built. They removed all Israeli neighbourhoods, destroyed the houses and removed all the coffins from the graveyards so that Hamas wouldn’t desecrate the dead bodies. Hamas doesn’t have a right to invade a sovereign country, rape and torture women, behead people, burn Holocaust survivors alive and massacre 1,200 innocent Israelis. What don’t you understand?
@Darius Guppy: Gaza was under total siege you complete numpty! Most of all my knowledge on the Palestinian holocaust that has been going on for decades comes from eminent Jewish scholars and journalists, trying to conflate Judaism and Zionism is utterly ridiculous most sane people including Jewish people are against the barbaric ethnic cleansing of the indigenous people of that region.
I also strongly condemn those wars in Yemen Syria etc, and constantly voice my disgust of the western corporate military interventions we see across the region..
@William Jennings: you absolute turd you have no idea what the apartheid settler state does to the cage over a million people in an open air prison camp completely sieged on all sides, go educate yourself before spouting your ignorant nonsense..
@William Jennings: IDF murdered most of the people on October 7th with there psychopathic Hannibal directive that was implemented. Absolutely disgusting apartheid regime has no legitimacy!
Genocidal psychopaths
Good riddance Erlich
Here’s Hamas, wagging its index finger conveying a message of hope and peace. No, I got that wrong. It’s a message of October 7th was great, will be repeated as soon as possible, and all going well, we’ll get rid of every single Jew too.
https://x.com/MEMRIReports/status/1879843148312215922?t=uFGhR3tJDOmoQ01F4NOmHQ&s=19
Hopefully it stops all the toerags marching up and down the main streets of towns and cities here waving Palestine flags. Wgaf about Palestine as long as they all stay there. We house enough offal already.
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