Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directed the secretary of government on Tuesday evening to dismiss Finance Minister Yair Lapid and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni.
“In the last couple of weeks and over the last day, Lapid and Livni have forcefully attacked the government,” he said.
“I will not tolerate this opposition from within,” he added.
Netanyahu said he will call to dissolve the Knesset as soon as possible in order for the citizens of Israel to vote and receive a clear mandate to lead Israel.
Following the announcement, the Prime Minister addressed the press again saying that he could not lead the government with his current coalition.
Netanyahu said his previous government was one of Israel’s best ever, but his current government could not get anything done.
He said there was political unity during Operation Protective Edge, but now its impossible to advance things for the good of the people.
Netanyahu attacked Lapid and Livni for opposing building over the Green Line, particularly in Jerusalem.
The Prime Minister said that Livni was the last one who could preach to anyone about responsibility, referring to her meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in May despite the government decision not to.
Labor MK Shelly Yachimovich said she thought Livni and Lapid should have quit rather than be humiliated by Netanyahu.
Livni, earlier on Tuesday, let loose at Netanyahu saying the impending elections will be over replacing a government she accused of “extremism, provocativeness and paranoia” without knowing how to fight terror while also “upholding freedom and Zionism.”
Livni, speaking at an Institute for National Security Studies conference, said she was going straight from her speech to meet with Netanyahu and that she “refused to compromise on any of the values that have guided me.”
She accused the prime minister of “inciting sectors in Israel against each other,” attacking his proposed law to define the Jewishness of the country as abandoning the idea of balancing Zionism with democratic principles.
