Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz burst into laughter during a radio interview Wednesday morning, after he was asked about the possibility of Religious Zionist Party chairman Bezalel Smotrich replacing him at the helm of the Defense Ministry.
After laughing at the question, Gantz challenged Smotrich’s qualifications for the position.
“I think that it is best not to toot one’s own horn, but to some extent it is permitted: my qualifications and those of the members of my party in the field of security for Israel are so far beyond the person you mentioned. He simply doesn’t have the tools.”
Gantz pushed back on the plan unveiled by Religious Zionist Party MKs Smotrich and Simcha Rothman Tuesday to reform the Israeli legal system.
Among the sections in the plan are the reform and rebuilding of the attorney general's office, the splitting of the attorney general's position into three different positions, changing the method of selecting judges, the “Override Clause”, the abolition of the "unreasonableness clause" for elected officials' decisions, a French law for prime ministers and ministers, and more.
The Defense Minister derided the reform plan, calling it a bid to support Opposition Leader Benjamin Netanyahu amid his ongoing legal woes.
“The justice system is not intended to guard the prime minister or any of his people, but instead the Israeli public. We need to make changes and reforms but we need to have them be balanced. We want to improve the system, they want to break it.”
Despite polls showing his National Unity ticket sliding in the polls, now projected to be the fourth largest faction in the Knesset, Gantz said he was best positioned out of all the candidates to form a new government.
“If Lapid wants to form a government with the Joint Arab List, then he has the numbers. And if Netanyahu wants to form a right-wing government with Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, then he has the numbers. Bennett led a government despite the fact that his party wasn’t the largest in the coalition.”