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Israeli demolition of West Bank outpost shakes Netanyahu’s cabinet

Defense Minister Yoav Galant and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich are on a collision course over an illegal West Bank outpost.

GIL COHEN-MAGEN/AFP via Getty Images
Israeli border guards arrive to evacuate settlers who attempted to reestablish an illegal settlement outpost called Or Haim, near the settlement of Migdalim, in the north of occupied West Bank on Jan. 22, 2023. — GIL COHEN-MAGEN/AFP via Getty Images

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Monday with Defense Minister Yoav Galant and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, in an attempt to resolve a clash between them over the razing of an illegal West Bank outpost. The order to dismantle the outpost was issued by Galant last week despite objections by Smotrich, who also serves as a junior minister in the Defense Ministry.

The clash between the two ministers was bound to happen. Still, coalition partners surely did not imagine such a confrontation should present itself so quickly, less than a month after the swearing-in of the new government.

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