Israel far-right minister Ben Gvir says will quit cabinet if Gaza deal approved

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00:00The Israel-Hamas peace deal, that would be a declared peace for a short phase, some six

00:09weeks and an exchange of some 33 hostages still being held, Israeli hostages still being

00:14held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisons and Israeli jails.

00:18We heard from Israel's National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gavir, within the last hour saying

00:24that he would resign if this goes ahead.

00:27He urged Benjamin Netanyahu to pull out of the deal which he says only whets the appetite

00:31of Hamas.

00:32Now, before that, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that he's confident the

00:37Gaza ceasefire agreed by Israel and Hamas will begin on Sunday, as is predicted, despite

00:43last-minute glitches.

00:44From Israel's perspective, this reads as a delay in voting on the deal by Netanyahu,

00:49until, as he puts it, Hamas accepts all the terms and conditions.

00:54Then came Ben-Gavir with his statement, which was rather incendiary, to say the least.

00:59Let's bring in Noga Tarnopolsky, Noga, of course, our correspondent observing all matters

01:04for us in Jerusalem.

01:06Noga, welcome back to the studio.

01:09Your contribution is always needed and never more than now, because with what we're hearing,

01:13it lends more confusion to what happens next.

01:17That's right.

01:18This is a moment of high drama and major confusion all around, and in fact, to even begin to

01:23explain to you what's happening, I have to engage it in a little bit of Israeli Kremlinology.

01:30Itamar Ben-Gavir is probably the most controversial politician in Israeli history.

01:36Before Prime Minister Netanyahu made him the Minister for National Security, he was considered

01:41a subject of police investigations.

01:43The guy's been convicted 13 times of hate crimes and terror.

01:49He was Benjamin Netanyahu's choice because Netanyahu himself is on trial and needed to

01:55form a government with anyone he could.

01:58Now he has reverted to old form, to being a bomb thrower on the eve of this international

02:04agreement to which Benjamin Netanyahu already agreed, and to which we still think he probably

02:10has a majority in the cabinet.

02:12Itamar Ben-Gavir, a man without whom Netanyahu may not be able to rule into the future, says,

02:18I quit.

02:19What he's doing is pushing Netanyahu into an almost impossible corner by saying, if

02:26this ceasefire agreement is in fact adopted by Israel, I quit.

02:31And I will only return to the government if war is relaunched.

02:35However, if Israel relaunches the war, it will be in violation of the same agreement

02:42it just agreed to.

02:44And the other danger coming down the pike is that finance minister Bezalel Smotrich

02:50still has not decided whether or not he will join Ben-Gavir in this rebel action.

02:58So the situation then, we're expecting from what was said 24 hours ago for this deal to

03:03come into operation on January the 19th.

03:06As it stands right now, we're waiting for Israel to vote on this on Saturday.

03:10And of course, without looking into a crystal ball, and even if you do that, you still can't

03:14tell what will happen, can you?

03:17I really can't.

03:18It's very complicated.

03:19So the vote was supposed to have taken place already today.

03:22Then we thought, we assumed it would take place tomorrow.

03:25Now again, we're guessing that it would take place Saturday night.

03:29It's important to mention Netanyahu at no point actually scheduled this cabinet vote.

03:34He may have had more of an inkling than we did that he was in real political trouble.

03:39All this said, I want to say, Benjamin Netanyahu is not in imminent danger of losing power

03:45because the opposition, the centrist leader, Yair Lapid, has reiterated his offer, saying

03:54to Netanyahu that so long as a hostage release deal is in place, he as leader of the opposition

04:01will offer Netanyahu a parliamentary safety net, meaning that Netanyahu will not be subject

04:09to a non-confidence vote in parliament if this deal does go through and hostages in

04:14fact are released.

04:15He would lose his majority, but he wouldn't lose power, but he would emerge really a crippled

04:21prime minister.

04:24So with the help of Yair Lapid, Benjamin Netanyahu might yet carry the day regarding this deal.

04:30Nourga, thank you very much indeed for watching for developments, of course.

04:34It is far from a done deal, as Nourga was saying.

04:37It goes to a vote by the security cabinet in Israel on Saturday, and of course we're

04:43following all developments on the situation.

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