In the wake of Housing Minister Ze’ev Elkin’s announcement on Sunday of new construction in Yehudah and Shomron well as Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s announcement on Friday about the designation of six Palestinian groups as terror entities, the left-wing parties in the coalition are fuming.

Both announcements apparently came as a surprise to the left-wing parties in the coalition, threatening a coalition crisis. At the cabinet meeting on Sunday, Meretz chairman Nitzan Horowitz and Labor chairman Merav Michaeli demanded of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett that no such “surprising” announcements of controversial decisions be repeated in the future.

Meretz vehemently denounced both decisions, issuing a statement slamming the “unilateral steps taken by government ministers…which endanger the future of the state of Israel…and undermine the basis on which the ‘change’ government was formed.”

Following Elkin’s announcement on Sunday about new housing in the “settlements,” Regional Cooperation Minister Issawi Frej (Meretz) told Army Radio: “We knew we would have to bite our tongues, but there’s a limit to how much we’re willing to give up. We can’t cooperate with a move that will block a two-state solution.”

Public Security Minister Omer Barlev (Labor) also criticized Gantz’s announcement, saying that he was not informed of the matter beforehand despite his position overseeing national security matters. “I am a member of the political-security cabinet and it didn’t come up there,” he said. “It raises questions.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)