Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, opening Sunday’s weekly cabinet meeting, vowed to continue to respond to ceasefire violations in Gaza and Lebanon, while batting away accusations of Israeli over-deference to Washington.
The meeting — held hours before Israel killed Hezbollah’s number-two leader in a Beirut airstrike — also featured heated arguments over dairy reform and jabs against Turkey. Members of the government joined a protest outside the meeting demanding Israel annex the West Bank.
“We continue to strike terrorism on several fronts,” Netanyahu said at the discussion’s start. “This weekend, the IDF struck in Lebanon, and we will continue to do whatever is necessary to prevent Hezbollah from reestablishing its capacity to threaten us.”
Netanyahu added that Israel was pursuing a similar strategy in the Gaza Strip: “Since the ceasefire, Hamas has not stopped violating it, and we are acting accordingly,” he said.
Israel carried out airstrikes in Gaza on Saturday after a Palestinian gunman opened fire on Israeli troops in the Strip’s south. According to Netanyahu’s office, five senior Hamas officials were killed in the strikes.
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Netanyahu also pushed back on criticism that critical decisions on Gaza were going through Washington. “All the talk that ‘we must obtain approval’ from this or that party is simply a complete lie. We act without relying on anyone,” he said.
“Israel is responsible for its own security.”
People gather at the site where an Israeli airstrike hit an apartment, in the southern suburb of Beirut, on November 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
After Netanyahu spoke, far-right ministers exchanged a yelling match over proposed dairy reform, according to quotes leaked to Hebrew media.
Nationwide milk shortages have led Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to advance a plan to open up the dairy market, which would ease government controls and waive high tariffs on imports. Opponents argue it will harm local producers and could eventually lead to a rise in costs of basic products.
National Security Minister Ben Gvir lashed out against the plan Sunday, saying Smotrich “is shutting down the dairy farms! Because of him, Israeli citizens won’t have milk.”
“Do you even know what the reform says?” Smotrich hit back. “It will strengthen the dairy farms and lower prices.”
“Stop being arrogant and conceited, thinking that everyone here is stupid,” Ben Gvir retorted. The debate grew so loud and heated that Netanyahu intervened, urging the ministers to speak slowly and concisely.
Presence of Turkish missions ‘intolerable’
As the topic shifted to Israel’s ally-turned-foe in Ankara, Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli called on the government to shut down the activities of the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA), a Turkish government body that conducts development assistance and operates widely in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.
“The presence of the Turkish consulates in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and TIKA’s activity is intolerable and must be shut down,” Chikli said.
“No self-respecting state would accept a country whose rhetoric is the rhetoric of an enemy state,” he said, adding that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s rhetoric “calls for the destruction of Israel.”
“This is an enemy state that wants to establish itself in Syria,” Chikli said. “We need to kick them out.”
The Turkish flag is flown at half-mast in honor of slain Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh at the Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv on August 2, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90/File)
According to Hebrew media quotes, Netanyahu replied: “Is that diplomatic language? I would say an ‘adversarial’ state.”
Chiming in, Settlements and National Projects Minister Orit Strock asked: “Why don’t we take away their diplomatic visas and send them to hell?”
Politicians join pro-annexation protesters
Before the meeting, Education Minister Yoav Kisch (Likud) and Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee chairman Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionism) joined a protest outside the Prime Minister’s Office demanding the annexation of the West Bank.
“There must not, under any circumstances, be a Palestinian state. I’m saying this as clearly as I can,” declared Kisch.
“More than that, we must advance sovereignty,” he continued, standing next to a sign that said: “Don’t upset God. Don’t go up against the Bible. Judea-Samaria-Gaza belong to the Jewish people!”
Minister of Education Yoav Kisch attends a demonstration calling for Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank and opposing a Palestinian state, outside the weekly cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, November 23, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
“There is an opportunity right now. There is an opportunity here at home. We must convey this message and act on it,” Kisch declared. “I think this is the best answer to all those who talk about this delusion called a Palestinian state. It is dangerous to Israel’s security, contrary to historical justice and to our right to the land… and we will establish one state, as the prime minister said, between the Jordan and the sea — and that is the State of Israel,” he says before heading into the gathering.
Rothman said: “The people demand it. Every poll shows it. The Knesset has affirmed it. It’s time for the government to do it… We must make sure that no Palestinian state is created and that the territories of Judea and Samaria are under the sovereignty of the State of Israel, not only through military control, but through applying sovereignty on the ground itself.
“Today, a government decision on applying sovereignty could be issued. It is in the hands of the government, and that is what we need to do,” he added.
Most of the international community considers Israel’s control of the West Bank an illegal occupation, and US President Donald Trump has said he will not let Israel annex the territory that Palestinians claim for a future state. Netanyahu has indicated the matter is not on the table.
Sharon Wrobel contributed to this report.
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