Araweelo News Network
Moshe Ya’alon, the former Israeli minister for military affairs (file photo)
Tela viv(ANN)-Israel’s former minister of military affairs has denounced the administration of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as extreme and corrupt, vowing to challenge him in the next elections.
Speaking to foreign reporters on Wednesday, Moshe Ya’alon accused Netanyahu of having generated “hatred for short-term political benefits,” adding that his administration “didn’t demonstrate its responsibility.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Photo by Reuters)
Ya’alon resigned in May 2016 after the premier offered his post as the minister of military affairs to hardliner Avigdor Lieberman. The cabinet shake-up was part of a deal struck to bring a right-wing party into Netanyahu’s coalition.
“I have lately found myself in difficult moral and professional controversies with the prime minister, a number of other ministers, and some members of Knesset,” Ya’alon said following his resignation, warning that Israel had been taken over by “dangerous and extreme elements.”
Prior to his resignation, Ya’alon came under fire for condemning the killing of a severely-wounded Palestinian by an Israeli soldier following an alleged stabbing attack in West Bank city of al-Khalil (Hebron) in March 2016.
Earlier this year, Ya’alon said the soldier’s trial had dragged on “because of cynical exploitation by politicians.”
Netanyahu had called for the Israeli troopers to be pardoned, but he was sentenced to 18 months in jail back in February.
The Israeli prime minister and his family have faced several corruption allegations over the past few years and multiple police investigations have been opened into the claims.
