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By Harriet Salem
May 20, 2016 | 7:45 pm
Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon resigned on Friday, saying that "extremist and dangerous elements" had hijacked the nation after the country's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu moved to replace him with the leader of the ultranationalist Yisrael Beitenu party.
In a televised speech outside the defense ministry a grim-faced Yaalon, who spent four years in the post, said he was stepping down following "difficult disputes over matters of principle and professionalism" with Netanyahu and several members of the cabinet.
"I fought with all my might against manifestations of extremism, violence, and racism in Israeli society, which are threatening its sturdiness and also trickling into the IDF [Israel Defense Forces]," he continued. "Sadly, leading politicians in this country chose the path of inciting and dividing between parts of Israeli society, instead of uniting and joining [them]."
Netanyahu is believed to have offered the newly vacant post to hardliner Avigdor Lieberman, who is also a bitter rival of the prime minister.
The appointment would be a substantial about-turn by the prime minister, who last year refused to give Lieberman the defense portfolio after the general election, result
If the appointment is confirmed, the addition of Yisrael Beitenu to the current six-party governing coalition would serve to bolster Netanyahu's razor-thin majority — controlling 61 of parliament's 120 seats — by six seats.
It would also mean that Israel's government, will become the "most right-wing and most extremist government since the founding of the state," said conservative newspaper Maariv.
Lieberman, a former nightclub bouncer in his native Moldova, has little military experience and is known for his hawkish views, including advocating for the transfer of Israeli Arabs into the Palestinian territories and introducing the death penalty for terrorists. Last year he said Palestinians who were disloyal to the Israel state "deserved to have their heads chopped off with an axe."
Netanyahu reportedly offered the post to Lieberman after backroom talks with Issac Herzog, leader of the center-left Zionist Union party, broke down.
On Wednesday, when negotiations were still ongoing, Herzog described the decision faced by Netanyahu over who to appoint to the post as a "historic choice" between a future of "wars and funerals" with Lieberman or "hope for all [Israeli] citizens" with the Zionist Union.
Yaalon's resignation follows a public disagreement with Netanyahu over comments made by a senior general who likened "nauseating trends" in Israel to Nazi Germany in the 1930s during a Holocaust Memorial Day speech. While the then-defense minister backed the general, the infuriated prime minister called the comments "wrong" and "unacceptable."
May 20, 2016 | 7:45 pm
Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon resigned on Friday, saying that "extremist and dangerous elements" had hijacked the nation after the country's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu moved to replace him with the leader of the ultranationalist Yisrael Beitenu party.
In a televised speech outside the defense ministry a grim-faced Yaalon, who spent four years in the post, said he was stepping down following "difficult disputes over matters of principle and professionalism" with Netanyahu and several members of the cabinet.
"I fought with all my might against manifestations of extremism, violence, and racism in Israeli society, which are threatening its sturdiness and also trickling into the IDF [Israel Defense Forces]," he continued. "Sadly, leading politicians in this country chose the path of inciting and dividing between parts of Israeli society, instead of uniting and joining [them]."
Netanyahu is believed to have offered the newly vacant post to hardliner Avigdor Lieberman, who is also a bitter rival of the prime minister.
The appointment would be a substantial about-turn by the prime minister, who last year refused to give Lieberman the defense portfolio after the general election, result
If the appointment is confirmed, the addition of Yisrael Beitenu to the current six-party governing coalition would serve to bolster Netanyahu's razor-thin majority — controlling 61 of parliament's 120 seats — by six seats.
It would also mean that Israel's government, will become the "most right-wing and most extremist government since the founding of the state," said conservative newspaper Maariv.
Lieberman, a former nightclub bouncer in his native Moldova, has little military experience and is known for his hawkish views, including advocating for the transfer of Israeli Arabs into the Palestinian territories and introducing the death penalty for terrorists. Last year he said Palestinians who were disloyal to the Israel state "deserved to have their heads chopped off with an axe."
Netanyahu reportedly offered the post to Lieberman after backroom talks with Issac Herzog, leader of the center-left Zionist Union party, broke down.
On Wednesday, when negotiations were still ongoing, Herzog described the decision faced by Netanyahu over who to appoint to the post as a "historic choice" between a future of "wars and funerals" with Lieberman or "hope for all [Israeli] citizens" with the Zionist Union.
Yaalon's resignation follows a public disagreement with Netanyahu over comments made by a senior general who likened "nauseating trends" in Israel to Nazi Germany in the 1930s during a Holocaust Memorial Day speech. While the then-defense minister backed the general, the infuriated prime minister called the comments "wrong" and "unacceptable."
