Middle East Monitor / October 9, 2023
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir today agreed to form an unconditional unity government, Haaretz reported.
“Reality dictates that unity and cohesion are what’s needed to defeat our enemies,” Smotrich said.
He added: “Leave behind teams and leave negotiations. I call on Prime Minister Netanyahu and [head of the opposition] Benny Gantz to rise to the occasion, meet immediately and agree on the establishment of a national emergency government that will unite the people, raise the spirit, provide full support to the IDF [army] and bring about the complete elimination of Hamas and the terrorist organizations in Gaza.”
Meanwhile, Ben-Gvir said that his party would welcome a broad emergency government, “as long as the basis of joining the government is agreement that the goal that the government will define for the IDF is total victory and crushing Hamas’s military and governmental power, Otzma Yehudit will welcome such a broad emergency government.”
Israel has come under unexpected attack from resistance fighters in Gaza who managed to infiltrate a number of Israel towns around the besieged enclave, taking prisoners of war and emptying the areas of their Israeli occupants.
