Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak said that Israel is drifting toward fascism under the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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“In general, Israeli society is a healthy society, and the majority of it is sane and aims for a Jewish, democratic and liberal country”, Ya’alon said adding, “But to my great sorrow, extremist and risky elements have taken over Israel and the Likud Party and are shaking the foundations and threatening to hurt its residents”.
“Unfortunately, I have recently found myself confronted by hard dilemmas on issues of principle and professional matters with the prime minister, a number of ministers and several Knesset members”, Yaalon said.
Explaining his decision to immediately step down, Ya’alon, who is a fellow member of Netanyahu’s staunchly right-wing Likud party, warned that “extremist and unsafe elements have taken over Israel”. The announcement came after Netanyahu proposed to replace him with a political ally in order to expand the coalition government.
Earlier this week, officials from Netanyahu’s Likud party confirmed that talks were ongoing to have Ya’alon, a Likud member and former chief of staff, replaced with Liberman, leader of the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party.
Netanyahu’s decision, while controversial internationally, makes sense at a domestic political level.
Yaalon is the highest profile casualty of an ongoing plan by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reform the government.
The Israeli Defense Minister nominee Avigdor Lieberman is no stranger to Azerbaijan, Ariel Cohen, PhD, a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and director of the Center for Energy, Natural Resources and Geopolitics at the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, told Trend May 21.
There had been speculation that Yaalon, who described himself as “fearful for Israel’s future” and who will also be leaving parliament, would be offered the post of foreign minister as a sort of consolation prize.
Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon resigned yesterday, charging that extremists had taken over the government after he clashed repeatedly with hardline ministers over the army’s handling of Palestinian violence.
Ironically, Mr Yaalon’s resignation will move the Likud parliamentary party further to the right as his seat in parliament will be taken by religious hardliner Yehuda Glick, who is next on the party list. He is now quitting the Knesset, the parliament.
“In general, Israeli society is a healthy society, and the majority of it is sane and aims for a Jewish, democratic and liberal country”, the source said.
The Independent has contacted Mr Lieberman for comment.
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Valls, who arrived on Saturday night, is to meet Netanyahu on Monday before holding talks in Ramallah on Tuesday with Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah. “He believes more in using military power”, Touma-Souliman said, citing Lieberman’s past pledge to remove Hamas from power in the Gaza Strip through force. An Israeli-American activist, Glick has campaigned to allow Jewish prayer at Jerusalem’s holiest site, the hilltop compound in the Old City that is sacred to both Jews and Muslims.
