JERUSALEM—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday fired two senior ministers and called for new elections.
Netanyahu dismissed Finance Minister Yair Lapid and Justice Minister Tsipi Livni and said that they had consistently opposed him and his policies from within the governing coalition.
"With the current government," he said, "it is impossible to run the country. I will not tolerate ministers attacking the government’s policies and its leader." Netanyahu said the pair had met with opposition leaders in an attempt at a political "putsch" that would have mustered enough votes to oust him as prime minister.
The Netanyahu government will remain in place until the elections, sometime next spring. Absent will be the two dismissed ministers plus four others from Lapid’s party who resigned in protest. Livni was the only minister from her party.
Netanyahu cited three specific issues on which he clashed with Lapid and Livni.
- Iran: Lapid had spoken approvingly of "new music" issuing from Tehran following the election of Hassan Rouhani last year as Iranian president, succeeding hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Lapid had also criticized Jerusalem’s order to its ambassador at the United Nations to boycott Rouhani’s speech when he appeared at the U.N. Netanyahu has taken an unremittingly hardline attitude toward Iran.
- Jerusalem: Both Lapid and Livni oppose the continuous building of Jewish housing in East Jerusalem, which has a large Arab population. Netanyahu said that Livni had met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, directly flaunting the prime minister’s order not to do so. "She went on to say that the boycott of Abbas is stupid."
- Jewish Nation-State: Livni, in particular, has voiced her objection to Netanyahu’s efforts to officially define Israel as a Jewish nation-state, saying that it was an anti-democratic step aimed at lowering the status of the country’s Arab population.
The clashes between the two ministers and Netanyahu have grown in intensity in recent months and have taken on a personal hue.
At the press conference, Netanyahu attributed the government’s right-wing positions to the electorate, which, he said, had dictated its "nationalist" makeup.
Referring to his Likud party, he said, "Likud didn’t get enough votes." The statement was aimed at Economics Minister Naftali Bennett whose right-wing Jewish Home Party had taken votes from Likud in the last election and is seen as an even greater threat to in the coming elections. Likud has traditionally seen itself not as right-wing but as center-right. An ultra-nationalist, Bennett has made no secret of his opposition to any peace treaty with the Palestinians while Netanyahu has in the past spoken of a two-state solution.
A statement by Lapid’s Yesh Atid Party said that Netanyahu was leading Israel into unnecessary elections. "The prime minister has chosen to act irresponsibly and to put the needs of the Israeli public at the bottom of his agenda."
Livni accused the Netanyahu government of "extremism, provocativeness, and paranoia".
Netanyahu was elected only 18 months ago to his third four-year term as prime minister.