Meretz MK Ghaida Rinawi-Zoabi said on Sunday that her party and the Islamist Ra’am party will prevent Prime Minister Naftali Bennett from launching a military operation.

In an interview with Kan News two days after Hezbollah launched 19 rockets into Israel, Zoabi said: “Prime Minister Naftali Bennett knows that if the government carries out out a military operation, the coalition will fall because Metetz and Ra’am won’t agree to it.”

“The presence of Meretz and Ra’am in the coalition limits the possibility of any military decision,” the Arab MK asserted. “At the moment the government decides on a military action, the coalition will be at risk of falling.”

“It’s in the coalition agreements. The government agreed that it will only deal with economic and civil matters.”

Zoabi claimed that if former prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu was still in power, his government would have reacted more strongly to the rockets launched from Lebanon last week. “Bennett understands today, and this is my interpretation, that he lost the right-wing voters so he needs to understand that he’s closer to the left.”

Matan Peleg, chairman of the Im Tirtzu organization, an NGO that works to strengthen Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, responded to Zoabi’s remarks by stating: “This is the realization of the worst-case scenario we could think of. Israel’s security is entrusted in the hands of Meretz and the Islamist organization. This report joins that of the report in the Arab papers on Bennett’s surrender to US pressure not to respond to Hezbollah.”

“Bennett continues his capitulation to the worst of our enemies in order to maintain his position. The citizens of Israel will never forgive someone who abandons their security for political power!”

The Likud party responded by stating: “Bennett isn’t able to preserve Israel’s security because his government is dependent on [Ra’am chairman] Mansour Abbas and the extreme left.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)