Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said Thursday that he will offer Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a security net to retain power if far-right members exit the governing coalition over opposition to President Trump’s ceasefire deal with Hamas.
“I have offered him a security net, he’s got a security net,” Lapid, chairman of the Yesh Atid party and leader of the opposition, said in an interview from Tel Aviv with Robert Sherman, a reporter for The Hill’s sister network NewsNation.
“All the extremists in his government combined, the two parties are 14 seats, I have 24, just my party alone, all in the service of this deal,” he continued. “So, there’s no way on earth he cannot do this because of political reasons.”
The Israeli Knesset, the nation’s legislature, will vote on Thursday over whether to accept the negotiated ceasefire deal, that is expected to secure the release of 20 living and the bodies of 28 hostages held by Hamas.
But the terms of the deal are drawing some opposition, largely from far-right members of Netanyahu’s governing coalition who want a complete Israeli takeover and annexation of the Gaza Strip.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich reportedly said that his far-right Religious Zionism party will not vote in favor of the deal, according to The Times of Israel. However, he has yet to comment on whether he would exit the government and tank Netanyahu’s coalition.
Smotrich took issue with the terms of the deal that require Israel to release Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. The deal also calls for an Israeli military withdrawal and doesn’t immediately deal with Hamas’s armed and political control of the strip.
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