Senior members of the coalition: Ben Gabir will not be fired, but now it is clear that it is possible without him

Coalition officials believe that the crisis that culminated last night (Monday) with National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gabir’s vote against the state budget will not threaten the government’s stability. “The coalition is very stable. It did not affect it and it will not fall apart because of the incident,” one of the leaders of the factions told Haaretz tonight. Although the minister’s vote against the budget requires his dismissal according to the government’s work regulations, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not expected to do so, as he wants to keep Ben Gabir and his Otzma Yehudit party in the coalition.

Netanyahu spoke tonight with the recalcitrant minister regarding the crisis and is expected to speak with him again later. Ben Gvir, for his part, demands that the dismissal of the legal adviser to the government, Gali Beharev-Miara, be brought up at the upcoming government meeting on Sunday, but for now this is not expected to happen. Senior officials in the government justified this by saying that they are not interested in “folding down” in the face of Ben Gvir’s demands, and also point out that the fact that the minister made a trade-off between the advisor’s dismissal and his vote on the budget could cause legal difficulties. At the same time, they assume that he and his party members are expected to intensify the protest measures if this is not done.

closure

Senior officials in the coalition point out that by the minister’s vote against the budget, he proved that his power is less than they estimated. “Ben Gabir made a mistake,” said a senior source in the coalition. “We were always worried that Ben Gvir would vote against – suddenly he voted against, and in the most dramatic vote possible (the vote on the budget, MH9) and nothing happened. We passed the vote even without him – maybe that means we don’t need Ben Gabir in the coalition.”

A source in Likud stated that “Netanyahu does not want Ben Gabir to resign, but his mistake is that he showed that his threats are worthless, and now it is clear to everyone. This applies to all issues – if Netanyahu was worried about what Ben Gabir would do with if he brought about a kidnapping deal – now Netanyahu sees that it is possible even without Ben Gvir.”

Despite the intention to avoid firing the minister, in the coming days Otzma Yehudit is expected to be punished by the coalition for violating coalition discipline. The assumption is that in the near future the coalition will oppose the laws of Ben Gabir and it is possible that it will not even propose laws of the other members of his party.