Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to secure a large majority in the security cabinet today to approve the ceasefire with Lebanon. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich is expected to support the deal, or at least not vote against it. All coalition party leaders are also expected to approve it, with the exception of Itamar Ben Gvir, who opposes it without threatening to bring down the government. However, public opposition to the deal remains strong, particularly among Netanyahu’s voting base. This resistance intensified after the 250 rockets fired yesterday from Lebanon towards Israel, mainly towards the north of the country.
Ben Gvir has already announced his intention to vote against the agreement on “We must listen to the commanders on the ground and the mayors. Right now, when Hezbollah is weakened and desperately wants a ceasefire, we must not stop.”
Former Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman also opposed the deal in an interview: “Netanyahu’s arrangements with Hamas took us to October 7, and now the arrangements with Hezbollah will take us to the same place.”
Within Likud, Minister Amichai Chikli wrote: “The series of blows to the Hezbollah leadership and the ground operations have brought enormous operational successes, we should in no case sell them for calm. We have already learned the hard way what the price is to pay to buy tranquility in the Middle Eastern bazaar.”
Netanyahu is expected to address the public today to present the agreement as a temporary measure that will be evaluated according to the reality on the ground. He will highlight the side deal with the United States that, for the first time, would give Israel freedom of action and a “blank check” to act whenever it wants.
Belgium
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