As Israel’s Operation Breaking Dawn ended late Sunday night, many voices were heard criticizing Prime Minister Yair Lapid for launching the operation without receiving the approval of the security cabinet.

When Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz confronted Lapid about the matter, Lapid defended himself by saying that he consulted with Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara and she approved the launching of the operation without the approval of the cabinet.

It should be noted that many right-wing politicians accuse Baharav-Miara of making many controversial decisions and being a “puppet of the left.” A previous decision she made that was condemned by right-wing politicians was approving the decision of Defense Minister Benny Gantz to appoint a new IDF chief of staff during the current pre-election period under a transitional government.

Channel 14 journalist Yinon Magal stated on Sunday: “I’m trying to understand. When Netanyahu wanted to launch an operation in Gaza, [former attorney general Avichai] Mandelblit wouldn’t allow him to do so without the approval of the cabinet, but Baharav-Miara allowed Lapid to launch an operation without cabinet approval.”

In the wake of the criticism, Baharav-Miara issued a statement on Monday saying that she approved Operation Breaking Dawn without a cabinet meeting because security officials determined that the operation would not lead to war.

“According to Article 40 of the Basic Law of the Government, it is determined that the state will not start a war and will not take a significant military action that could lead – with a level of probability close to certain – to war, except by a decision of the government which is enabled and approved by the cabinet,” she wrote. “The question of whether military action could lead to a war as stated above is determined by professional security officials.”

“In this case, in light of the intelligence information and after assessments, the professional security officials unanimously determined that the military action…would not lead to war. The legal position was determined based on the aforementioned professional determination.”

However, her statements aroused widespread ridicule as even “professional security officials” aren’t prophets and there was definitely a possibility that the operation could have escalated into a war if Hamas would have chosen to get involved.

Many responded sarcastically, with one social media user writing: “Based on this statement, they approved the recruitment of 25,000 reservists?” Others sardonically accused Baharav-Miara of obviously having forged a deal with Hamas since she was so sure that a war wouldn’t develop.

Yisrael Hayom reporter Erel Segal responded by stating: “Chaval on the time spent on primaries, voting, the establishment of a coalition, cabinets and meetings. There’s an attorney-general and she’ll be the one to approve.”

Others accused Lapid of doing something that he previously accused former prime minister Binyanim Netanyahu of doing: making decisions in a unilateral matter.

During the Gantz-Netanyahu government, Lapid wrote: “After all the talk of the unity-government, of the alternative prime minister, all the authority will rest with one man: Binyamin Netanyahu. He alone. There’s no Knesset, no cabinet, no government.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)