Deputy Minister Almog Cohen (Otzma Yehudit) spoke in an interview with Radio 103 FM on Thursday about the tension between him and the chairman of his party, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, as well as the personal security situation in the south following an attempted robbery near his home in Ofakim.
"Minister Ben-Gvir has spoken to me for nearly a year," Cohen revealed. "Ever since I saved the government in the budget vote, he hasn't said hello to me."
Cohen also discussed the attempted robbery of a jewelry store on Tuesday evening in a newly opened shopping center near his home: "Behind my home, a place where my children go twice a week, a robbery was carried out, and it took the police 12 minutes to get there. So there is a problem here."
He emphasized that he has no personal criticism against the police officers themselves. "Our police are heroes, there is no debate about that," he said, and stressed that the problem is the policy, not the forces on the ground.
"I do not retract what I said that there is no police in Israel - the goal is to shock. To cause the members of the government to understand that this is a national issue, not a local one."
Cohen called for the creation of a dedicated body to attend to the situation: "The Israel Police can't deal with this alone... The solution is to establish a mission-specific national headquarters that would allow us to end this issue through aggressive measures. People want the issue to be dealt with; it won't happen with the help of Naftali Bennett and the Muslim Brotherhood."