In response to the current standoff over Education Minister Naftali Bennett’s (Jewish Home) demand to appoint a military secretary to every Security Cabinet minister, Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) on Sunday warned Bennett not to bring down the government.

Bennett has threatened to bolt the coalition and not support the entry of Yisrael Beytenu over his demand, which came following a report indicating flaws in the Cabinet.

“I call on Minister Bennett to regain his composure and preserve the most nationalist government that has been here for years,” warned Hotovely.

“The demands regarding the Cabinet, as justified as they may be, do not comprise a pretext to disassemble the government, professional topics need to be dealt with in the accepted ways.”

“The right-wing camp has done this tragic mistake of collapsing a right-wing government due to small considerations in the past, which led us to processes such as the Oslo Accords which we pay for in blood to this very day,” she concluded, noting on previous cases of disunity.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has sought to placate Bennett with a committee that is to propose ways to improve the briefing of Cabinet ministers in three weeks’ time. Jewish Home rejected Netanyahu’s committee proposal, calling it “spin.” 

For his part, Netanyahu rejected a compromise to have the head of the National Security Council (NSC) or his deputy be responsible for reporting to Cabinet ministers until the committee completes its recommendations.