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Israeli right-wing party threatens to torpedo new coalition deal

Xinhua, May 26, 2016 Adjust font size:

The right-wing Jewish Home party threatened on Wednesday to torpedo a recently-signed coalition deal between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the ultranationalist Yisrael Beytenu, if its demands for changes in the security cabinet are not met.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the settlers-backed party said that the requirement to make changes to the security cabinet, a decision-making forum of top ministers, is "written in blood" and the party will not back out of this demand.

"The prime minister's ongoing insistence on restricting the members of the security cabinet is confusing," the statement issued to the press read. "We do not demand jobs or budgets, but to save lives," it added.

The party threatened that its eight members will vote in the government against the appointment of Lieberman as defense minister, therefore thwarting the coalition deal, if its demands are not met.

The head of the Jewish Home, Education Minister Naftali Bennett, had demanded in the past week that Netanyahu will appoint a military attaché to update ministers in real-time information from the field and to increase visits by members of the cabinet to military bases and zones.

The claims come after earlier this month a comptroller's report leaked to Israeli media charged that key intelligence was kept hidden from members of the security cabinet during the 2014 military campaign in the Gaza Strip, known as Operation Protective Edge.

The Jewish Home statement arrives several hours after Netanyahu signed a coalition deal with hawkish lawmaker Avigdor Lieberman, head of Yisrael Beytenu ("Israel Our Home"), in order to increase his coalition's advantage over the opposition from the thin 61-59 lead it sustained in the 120-seat parliament.

Lieberman will be officially sworn-in as defense minister in the upcoming days, instead of outgoing minister Moshe Ya'alon from the Likud party, who was ousted by Netanyahu amid tensions between the two.

The deal was secured after an overnight marathon talks took place, following a week of intensive negotiations. Endit