Feud ERUPTS Between Israeli TOP Official
Itamar Ben-Gvir, the minister of national security in Israel, was charged by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant with “continually trying to blow up the Middle East.”
During Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s visit to the US, the public feud broke out.
“Itamar Ben-Gvir is constantly trying to blow up the Middle East,” Gallant wrote Wednesday on social media. “I categorically reject any ideas of hurting the Status Quo in the holy city of Jerusalem.”
Ben-Gvir’s statement that “Jews pray on the Temple Mount and that’s a good thing” prompted Gallant to issue that broadside, breaking a long-standing arrangement that gives authority to an Islamic body supported by the Jordanian government to supervise the revered sites. This is only the most recent instance of the hard-right politician pressuring Netanyahu to annex the Gaza Strip while also trying to change government policy in areas under Israeli control.
“There is a pyromaniac sitting in the Israeli government who is trying to set fire to the Middle East,” Gallant also wrote. “I oppose any negotiations to put him in the war cabinet. This will allow him to realize his plans.”
For months, Ben-Gvir has been pushing for an official position in formulating a war strategy, especially since the unity war cabinet fell apart in June due to criticism from centrist opposition leader Benny Gantz on Netanyahu’s failure to create a workable post-war plan for Gaza. Netanyahu has faced challenges in resisting Ben-Gvir’s demands, worldwide criticism of Israel that has been stoked in part by responses to Ben-Gvir’s aggressive remarks, and Israel’s military goals in relation to the necessity of securing the release of the hostages.
According to Netanyahu’s administration, “Israel’s policy of maintaining the status quo on the Temple Mount has not changed and will not change.” For his part, Ben-Gvir maintained that prohibiting Jews from praying atop the Temple Mount “is racism.”
“They always tell me ‘political leadership’ is against it,” Ben-Gvir said earlier Wednesday. “I am the political leadership and the political leadership allows Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount.”
The chief rabbinate likewise opposes admission to the Temple Mount, therefore Ben-Gvir also attracted criticism from the religious right.
Israeli Interior Minister Moshe Arbel declared on Wednesday that “the position of all the great men of Israel for generations is the ban on Jewish prayer at the Temple Mount. The great blasphemy committed by Ben-Gvir cannot pass quietly, because this issue is so explosive.”