Zionist PM to Take Over as War Minister
AL-QUDS (Dispatches) – Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will take over the war ministry portfolio in his regime after war minister Avigdor Lieberman resigned this week, a spokesman for his Likud Party said on Friday, fuelling speculation of an early election.
Earlier Netanyahu met with key coalition partner Naftali Bennett of the Jewish Home Party who had sought the post for himself, but the two men emerged without an agreement.
Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition cabinet was rocked by Lieberman’s resignation on Wednesday in protest at a ceasefire reached between the regime and the Hamas resistance movement in the Gaza Strip.
After Bennett and Netanyahu’s meeting, a spokesman for the PM’s Likud Party said that for now Netanyahu would take over the defense portfolio himself.
The political leader of the Hamas resistance movement says Lieberman’s resignation in the aftermath of an Egypt-brokered truce with Gaza constitutes "an admission of defeat” and a "political victory” for the Palestinian resistance in the besieged territory.
Head of Hamas Political Bureau Ismail Haniyeh made the remarks hours after Lieberman stepped down from his post in protest at Tel Aviv’s ceasefire with Gaza-based resistance factions only days after the regime sparked the worst flare-up of violence in the coastal enclave since its 2014 war there.
"We achieved a political victory with the resignation,” Haniyeh told Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen TV channel. "Lieberman’s resignation announcement is an admission of defeat for him and the usurping entity.”
The resignation followed an Israeli commando raid and a spate of deadly airstrikes against Gaza, which triggered retaliatory rocket attacks by Palestinian resistance groups into the southern parts of the occupied territories.
Lieberman cited "differences” with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu – who had backed the truce -- as the reason for his departure.
He described the truce as "a capitulation to terror” and pulled his political party out of the coalition administration in Tel Aviv, a move that left Netanyahu with a single-seat parliamentary majority and could bring about early elections in the occupied land.
Netanyahu, however, tried to defend his decision to accept the truce and said, "In times of emergency, when making decisions crucial to security, the public can’t always be privy to the considerations that must be hidden from the enemy.”
Haniyeh further stressed that Hamas had "achieved a military victory against this odious occupier in less than a week.”
"A military victory occurred with the heroic performance of the Palestinian resistance factions who responded to the occupier’s crime and aggression with a response commensurate with its aggression,” he added.
The Hamas leader further noted that resistance is "the path to al-Quds and all of Palestine’s land.”
Additionally on Wednesday, Abu Hamzeh, a spokesman for Hamas’s military wing the Ezzeddin al-Qassam Brigades, said the Palestinian resistance factions had managed to lead Zionist politicians and military officials to "lose their future.”
Palestinians run for cover from tear gas fired by Zionist troops in the southern Gaza Strip on November 9, 2018.
Earlier Netanyahu met with key coalition partner Naftali Bennett of the Jewish Home Party who had sought the post for himself, but the two men emerged without an agreement.
Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition cabinet was rocked by Lieberman’s resignation on Wednesday in protest at a ceasefire reached between the regime and the Hamas resistance movement in the Gaza Strip.
After Bennett and Netanyahu’s meeting, a spokesman for the PM’s Likud Party said that for now Netanyahu would take over the defense portfolio himself.
The political leader of the Hamas resistance movement says Lieberman’s resignation in the aftermath of an Egypt-brokered truce with Gaza constitutes "an admission of defeat” and a "political victory” for the Palestinian resistance in the besieged territory.
Head of Hamas Political Bureau Ismail Haniyeh made the remarks hours after Lieberman stepped down from his post in protest at Tel Aviv’s ceasefire with Gaza-based resistance factions only days after the regime sparked the worst flare-up of violence in the coastal enclave since its 2014 war there.
"We achieved a political victory with the resignation,” Haniyeh told Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen TV channel. "Lieberman’s resignation announcement is an admission of defeat for him and the usurping entity.”
The resignation followed an Israeli commando raid and a spate of deadly airstrikes against Gaza, which triggered retaliatory rocket attacks by Palestinian resistance groups into the southern parts of the occupied territories.
Lieberman cited "differences” with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu – who had backed the truce -- as the reason for his departure.
He described the truce as "a capitulation to terror” and pulled his political party out of the coalition administration in Tel Aviv, a move that left Netanyahu with a single-seat parliamentary majority and could bring about early elections in the occupied land.
Netanyahu, however, tried to defend his decision to accept the truce and said, "In times of emergency, when making decisions crucial to security, the public can’t always be privy to the considerations that must be hidden from the enemy.”
Haniyeh further stressed that Hamas had "achieved a military victory against this odious occupier in less than a week.”
"A military victory occurred with the heroic performance of the Palestinian resistance factions who responded to the occupier’s crime and aggression with a response commensurate with its aggression,” he added.
The Hamas leader further noted that resistance is "the path to al-Quds and all of Palestine’s land.”
Additionally on Wednesday, Abu Hamzeh, a spokesman for Hamas’s military wing the Ezzeddin al-Qassam Brigades, said the Palestinian resistance factions had managed to lead Zionist politicians and military officials to "lose their future.”
Palestinians run for cover from tear gas fired by Zionist troops in the southern Gaza Strip on November 9, 2018.