Netanyahu takes swing at Katz in tense, polarizing meeting
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Netanyahu signals rising Likud tensions as debate grows over "Israel’s" policy on Gaza, disarmament plans, and political ambitions ahead of elections.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu participates in the memorial ceremony for the soldiers killed in the war, at Mt. Herzl, in occupied al-Quds, on October 16, 2025 (Pool Photo via AP)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday fired a shot across the bow of lawmakers whom he insinuated were looking to improve their electoral prospects through public statements, in comments seen as a strike at Security Minister Israel Katz.
He also briefly barred four ministers who arrived late for Sunday’s cabinet meeting.
“The elections will be held by the end of [next] year, we know that, and I assume it will be at the end of the year,” Netanyahu said at the meeting. “But during this election year, we are witnessing a barrage of primaries [campaigning], both from within Likud and from outside.”
Polls are scheduled for October 27, 2026, at the latest.
“The issues being discussed constantly in this barrage of tweets, which I don’t recall happening in the past about security matters, are all about: ‘I said, I did, I updated,’ including topics related to our national security,” said Netanyahu. “I remind you that these matters are determined in coordination with the prime minister, who is responsible for them.”
Netanyahu did not list any ministers by name, but his remarks were widely seen as focused on Katz, a member of the premier’s Likud party, who regularly posts about top security and diplomatic issues, seeming to take credit for "a tough Israeli line."
There are also apparent tensions between the prime minister and Katz over the pick for the next IOF legal chief. Shortly before the cabinet meeting, Katz had written on X that “Israel’s policy is clear: A Palestinian state will not be established.”
מדיניות ישראל ברורה: לא תקום מדינה פלסטינית.
— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) November 16, 2025
צה"ל יישאר בפסגת החרמון ובאזור הביטחון.
עזה תפורז עד למנהרה האחרונה והחמאס יפורק מנשקו בצד הצהוב על ידי צה"ל ובעזה הישנה על ידי הכוח הבינלאומי - או על ידי צה"ל.
"The IDF will remain on Mount Hermon and in the security zone [in Syria]. Gaza will be demilitarized down to the last tunnel, and Hamas will be disarmed, in the yellow zone by the IDF, and in old Gaza by the international force, or by the IDF."
Katz’s statement was an apparent response to the release of a US-organized joint statement by several nations asserting that there is a "pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood" in US President Donald Trump’s 20-point Gaza plan.
Earlier on Saturday, Katz declared that any political settlement must be subordinated to Israeli security imperatives. He said that Gaza must be “demilitarized down to the last tunnel” and that the removal of the Palestinian Resistance's military capabilities would be carried out either by Israeli occupation forces in areas under direct Israeli occupation or by an international stabilization force.
The minister’s remarks follow months of high-level talks in Washington and regional capitals over ways to secure a durable ceasefire and Gaza's future. Katz presented demilitarization not as a transitional aim but as a permanent prerequisite for any change in the status quo, a position that places Israeli security demands at odds with international efforts that link reconstruction and normalization to political progress for the Palestinians.
