Netanyahu has yet to make decision on whether to comply with Jewish Home ultimatum for defense portfolio or call early elections

ed note–Again, for those a lil’ slow in the ‘political math’ department, let us lay out a few invariables in this that seem to have escaped notice.

Netanyahu did not ‘surrender’ to Hamas. Nor did Hamas ‘beat’ Israel–one of the most powerful and bloodthristy militaries on the planet–with their bottle rockets, their ‘incendiary balloons’ or their ‘terror kites’. Nor has Netanyahu experienced a ‘coming to Jesus’ moment where he has suddenly developed a conscience and decided that the Palestinians are indeed people too and that terrible injustices have been done to them and that these injustices need to stop.

This entire charade–the recognition of which seems to have escaped the understanding of a LOT of ‘experts’ in this ‘muuvmnt’–is all about making sure that Israel is able to continue doing what she does best–steal land, kill people, and look justified in doing so.

It is about derailing Trump’s ‘ultimate peace deal’ by destabilizing the present Israeli government so that when it comes time to sit down and negotiate, Israel will not have a ‘functioning’ government to do so. In this way, Israel can escape the obvious censure that would inevitably fall upon her for outrightly rejecting any negotiations, which means that it is somewhere between probable and definite that some of the details of this plan have been leaked to Israel and–more importantly–that she has come by ‘inside information’ that the Palestinians are preparing to ‘recalibrate’ their opposition to what Trump wants to do and are now–after having seen some of the ‘goodies’ that are to come their way in this deal–willing to sit down and negotiate.

Times of Israel

Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman officially tendered his resignation on Thursday, a day after announcing he would step down to protest a ceasefire agreement with Hamas that brought an end to a major flareup in violence in the Gaza Strip.

Lieberman will hold a final meeting with top defense officials later on Thursday, the Kan news broadcaster reported. His resignation will go into effect 48 hours after he submitted the letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Lieberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party is also quitting Netanyahu’s coalition, leaving the premier with only a two-seat advantage over the opposition in parliament and throwing his government into turmoil.

Netanyahu has not yet named Lieberman’s replacement, and has not indicated if he will comply with the ultimatum by the Jewish Home party, which is demanding the defense portfolio in the wake of Lieberman’s departure.

On Wednesday, Lieberman told reporters he was resigning over the ceasefire reached with Gaza terror groups following an unprecedentedly intense two-day rocket barrage on Israel’s south.

“What happened yesterday, the ceasefire, together with the deal with Hamas, is a capitulation to terror. There is no other way of explaining it,” Lieberman told reporters.

“What we’re doing now as a state is buying short-term quiet, with the price being severe long-term damage to national security,” he said, adding that early elections should be held “as soon as possible.”

Other defense officials also leveled harsh criticism of the government’s handling of the Gaza flareup, telling Kan on Thursday morning that security considerations in Israel were becoming increasingly politicized.

Unnamed officials told the broadcaster the Netanyahu government had failed to inform its own security cabinet of the official policy on military action in Gaza.

“The value of even holding a [security] cabinet meeting is zero,” an official told the broadcaster.

The defense officials said Lieberman’s resignation exposed the “political games” that dominated discussions within the cabinet.

On Tuesday evening, the security cabinet agreed to an informal ceasefire with Hamas in a decision that several cabinet ministers later said they opposed.

Lieberman, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, Environmental Protection Minister Ze’ev Elkin, and Education Minister Naftali Bennett proposed an alternative response, but it was rejected by the other ministers at the meeting, according to Channel 10.

The decision was slammed by some opposition leaders, who called it a capitulation to terror after a deadly two-day conflagration that saw over 400 rockets and mortar shells fired at southern Israel. Netanyahu has defended the ceasefire deal that ended the worst escalation between Israel and Palestinian terror groups in Gaza since a 2014 war.

An official from Netanyahu’s Likud party hit back at speculation that early elections would be called and said Wednesday that the prime minister would take charge of Lieberman’s portfolio at least temporarily.

“There’s no obligation to go to an election in this time of security sensitivity,” the official said on condition of anonymity. Elections are currently scheduled for November 2019.

Later, a Likud spokesman said that Netanyahu had begun consultations with heads of parties in his coalition to stabilize it and that these would continue on Thursday.