The government’s approval of a plan to seize control of Gaza City has brought the Religious Zionism party closer to leaving the governing coalition, MK Simcha Rothman said in an interview with the Knesset Channel on Sunday.
Rothman stated that party leader and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has not yet resigned despite publicly declaring last week that he had “lost faith” in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war strategy.
“It’s definitely on the table,” Rothman said, noting that the party has repeatedly warned it will withdraw from the coalition.
“The moment we are convinced that they have dropped the goals of the war.” He added that the cabinet’s recent decision “brought us very close to such an eventuality,” but stressed that nothing has been finalized.
“I suppose the coming hours and days will tell,” Rothman said, urging the government to reverse course and “go all the way to the end to defeat Hamas.”
On Saturday night, Smotrich posted a video on X saying that the Gaza City plan convinced him he had “lost faith that the prime minister is able and wants to lead the IDF to a decisive victory.” While the remarks were critical, he stopped short of directly threatening to quit.
This morning, Religious Zionism MK Zvi Sukkot wrote on X that if Israel “abandons the war’s objectives,” the country should “go to elections.”
