Israeli defence minister resigns in protest  

Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon resigned on Friday and announced that he would take a break from politics, citing a lack of trust in the prime minister and warning that extremism and racism was taking over Israel, Arabi21.com reported.

Earlier on Friday, Ya’alon wrote on Facebook: “I notified the prime minister this morning that following his conduct in the latest developments and in view of the lack of trust in him, I am resigning from the government and the Knesset and taking time out from political life.”

Noting that he had worked well with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a long time, Ya’alon said during a speech at the Israeli army headquarters “unfortunately, I recently found myself in strong disagreement on moral and professional issues with the prime minister, a number of ministers and several MKs”.

“I fought with all my might against manifestations of extremism, violence and racism in Israeli society, which are threatening its sturdiness and also trickling into the IDF, hurting it already,” he said.

Ya’alon recently supported IDF officials’ right to express their opinions. This support followed Netanyahu’s criticism of comments made by IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Yair Golan on Holocaust Remembrance Day which compared Israel to pre-Nazi Germany.

Hardliner Avigdor Lieberman is likely to replace Ya’alon.