Following US sanctions against an IDF unit this Monday, tensions inside the Israeli government have sparked, with ministers Benny Gantz and Itamar Ben Gvir each accusing the other of harming Israel’s national security.
It was on this Monday that the US announced it is expected to impose a number of sanctions against a controversial Israeli military unit for human rights abuses against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
The sanctions will target the Netzah Yehuda battalion, an all-male IDF infantry unit made up of ultra-Orthodox and religious nationalist Jewish recruits, and ban the transfer of US military weaponry or any other forms of assistance to the IDF unit.
It is the first time in the history of US-Israel relations that Washington has imposed sanctions on the Israeli military. And for this reason, the US announcement was more than enough to create havoc inside the Israeli government.
A day later on Tuesday, war cabinet minister and former Israel’s defense minister Benny Gantz lashed out at Itamar Ben Gvir, National Security Minister in the Netanyahu government, and accused his of risking Israel’s national security.
Speaking with reporters in the Knesset, Gantz asserted, without explicitly naming Ben Gvir, that “ministers who damage national security should not sit in the cabinet.”
This former IDF chief of staff and a member of Netanyahu’s war cabinet also note that “just as soldiers do not get a break on the battlefield, neither should the country’s leaders,” calling on the Knesset members to “set a personal example, and certainly not engage in division or attempts to pass laws and decisions that harm our security and political interests.”
“Israel’s focus should be on partnership and not on favoring a sector or a group,” Gantz also said, referring to Ben Gvir’s recent efforts to keep ultra-Orthodox Jews still exempted from military service even though Israel is in short of military personnel during its war in Gaza.
Ben Gvir hit back, accusing Gantz of the same stuff!
Hitting back at what Gantz said in the Knesset about Ben Gvir, the National Security Minister said to the same politicians and in the same place that it was Gantz, not him, who is harming national security of Israel.
“The person who harmed the security of the State of Israel, who drove the concept of containment and surrender to Hamas, endangered Golani’s soldiers, brought in workers from Gaza, opened the checkpoints in the West Bank, shut down the emergency response teams, and hosted [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas] in his home, is Gantz,” Ben Gvir said, referring to the time when Gantz was Israel’s defense minister between 2020 and 2022.
“In my opinion, someone like him should not sit in the cabinet,” Ben Gvir also noted.
Since the war n Gaza started on October 7, the US has been supporting Israel by supplying them with weapons and financial aid. At the same time, however, Washington has also been critical of the volume of violence that the Israeli military has been practicing in Gaza. In nearly six months of the war, Israel has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children.
Monday’s announcement by Washington regarding the imposing of sanctions against IDF was in fact the first time the US decided to respond to Israel’s unprecedented bloodshed in Gaza by means other then words.
