The Times of Israel reports: Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon’s announcement Friday that he was resigning from the Knesset and government drew an avalanche of responses from politicians on all sides of Israeli politics.
Ya’alon was considered one of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s key allies in the ruling Likud party. But in his resignation announcement Friday, he cited “my lack of faith” in Netanyahu as the reason for his “break from political life.”
The resignation comes amid a dramatic coalition shake-up in which his post has been handed to Yisrael Beytenu leader Member of Knesset Avigdor Liberman in a bid to bring Liberman into Netanyahu’s razor-thin 61-seat coalition.
Ya’alon’s parting shot at Netanyahu set the political system atwitter — including on Twitter — with condemnations of both Netanyahu and the outgoing defense minister, praise for Ya’alon’s “values,” including from Netanyahu allies, and speculation over the future of the current government.
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