When the religious right start cannibilizing themselves

Jewish Home party (formerly known as the National Religious Party) withdraws support over Hamas ceasefire handling

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raced to save his coalition on Friday, as the Jewish Home party withdrew its support over the handling of a ceasefire with Hamas and the rejection of its own candidate for defence minister.

Mr Netanyahu said in a statement that he was making “every effort to preserve the rightwing government,” and warned of the consequences of toppling the Likud-led coalition.

He urged his coalition partners “not to repeat the historical mistake of 1992 when the rightwing government was overthrown, the left came into power and brought the Oslo disaster to the State of Israel,” referring to the Oslo Peace Accords with the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Mr Netanyahu’s lost his majority in parliament with the departure of the Jewish Home party, with his coalition dropping to 53 of the Knesset’s 120 seats. Earlier this week, he held on to a razor thin majority after the departure another coalition partner over his handling of the Gaza cease fire.

The leader of the Jewish Home party, Naftali Bennett, reportedly told the prime minister of his decision after being denied the defence portfolio, which was vacated earlier this week by Avigdor Lieberman, a rival of Mr Bennett’s in Israel’s rightwing politics.

Mr Netanyahu agreed a ceasefire with Hamas on Tuesday after two days of the worst rocket attacks on Israeli cities since a war in 2014. Seventy per cent of Israelis were disappointed in the decision, a poll said earlier on Friday.