Veteran Likud politician Yuval Steinitz announced on Tuesday that he will not be running in the next election and is resigning from politics.
Steinitz, 64, who served in the Knesset for 23 years, has held the positions of intelligence minister, finance minister, energy minister, and the chairman of the Knesset’s powerful Foreign Affairs and Security Committee.
He published a video on social media, stating: “A short while ago, I informed Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu on my decision not to run in the upcoming elections. After 23 years as an MK… I felt that the time has come for my family and I to breathe some fresh air.”
“I am proud of my accomplishments in my various positions over the years in economy, foreign policy, and security. Some are of historic significance, including uncovering the Syrian nuclear program, creating the first-ever two-year state budget in the world, bringing Israel into the OECD, bringing our economy out of the 2009-2012 global economic crisis, and the gas deal which transformed Israel into an energy power.”
An interesting fact about Steinitz is that he grew up in a politically liberal family and began his political career in the early 1980s as a left-wing activist and member of the Peace Now movement. After ten years of political activism, he changed his political views in the wake of his reservations about the signing of the Oslo Accords and his misgivings about Egypt’s massive military buildup following the Israel-Egypt peace deal.
Some believe that Steinitz’s resignation is connected to the fact that his wife, Gila Kanfei-Steinitz, was recently appointed as a judge to the Supreme Court, the first Sephardi female judge to serve in the court. Although the Likud supported her appointment, Likud and other right-wing MKs are very critical of the Supreme Court for its often left-leaning rulings.
Following the announcement, Netanyahu and many other politicians praised Steinitz highly for his many accomplishments, with Netanyahu noting his successful economic policies and his role in advancing the legislation required to extract natural gas from Israel’s economic waters.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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4 Responses
Perhaps his most notable achievement was enriching the upstream owners of the offshore gas production facilities by forcing approval of above-market price long-term contracts in the name of “national security”. Israeli utility customers will be paying excessive prices for a generation.
A politician who understands it’s time to quit – tell that to Bibi!
@Kanoi,
Bibi has the majority support of Jews in Israel. No need for him to quit, just because some politicans have a personal grudge with him.
He has all that takes to stir Israel through it’s storms.
Kanoi: Some politicians?? Several Likud and UTJ MKs have openly said its time for a change, while others quietly wish he would “just disappear” and move on to become a member of the Trilateral Commission, show up at Davos etc as a senior statesman, become a showpiece for right-wing dictators like Orban in Hungary to roll out to show their “Jewish friends” etc. etc.