On the afternoon of Jan. 21, settlers from Hebron entered two vacant houses near the Tomb of the Patriarchs. The invaders claimed they had bought the houses legally, but failed to present the police with bills of sale to prove it. They refused to vacate the premises and became unruly. By the end of the week, there was a minor political crisis after Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon made the obvious decision and gave orders for the settlers to be evicted.
The prime minister was away at the time, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Ya’alon, who was aware of the implications of such an action for the stability of the ruling coalition, acted quickly and resolutely. He knew he would be attacked, but probably miscalculated the intensity of the coordinated attack on him from within the coalition. Not only did radical Knesset members like Bezalel Smotrich lash out at him, but also senior Cabinet ministers like Yariv Levin and Ze’ev Elkin, and even Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein. It was a full day later that the prime minister backed Ya’alon up.
