Transportation Minister Miri Regev attacked War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz for his trip to Washington, DC, saying that Gantz was acting "subversively" as the only one who can make decisions is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Regev's comments came in an interview with KAN Reshet Bet radio on Monday morning.
Regev said that Gantz was making a "private trip" and could not make any decisions as he does not represent the government and did not receive permission from the government or Netanyahu. She called on Gantz to "act responsibly," saying that the visit was "incorrect."
The transportation minister added that she believed that US officials "see a sort of weakness in Gantz" as "they understand that [Netanyahu] is standing strong on our national interests on all things related to there not being a Palestinian state and on all things related to us not leaving Gaza and not stopping the war until we achieve the two goals of the war: destroying Hamas and bringing the hostages home."
US should stay out of Israel politics
"I don't give grades to [US] President Joe Biden," said Regev. "I very much appreciate the aid provided by Biden, but at the end of the day, the one who decides who the prime minister and government are in Israel are the citizens of Israel. We have a lot of respect for the Americans. Just like we don't get into the elections within the US, I expect the president of the US not to get into and disrupt our elections or not respect the choice of the citizens of Israel."
Regev also referred to polls showing that the Likud would weaken in future elections, saying that she was seeing "other polls" that showed that the Likud was actually gaining support and that Netanyahu was still seen as the best option for prime minister.
Later on Monday, KAN reported that Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs sent a message to Gantz last Friday stating that Gantz's trip to the US was approved "subject to the approval of the prime minister." Officials in the Prime Minister's Office had reportedly approved the trip last week, but Netanyahu later overrode the decision and told Gantz the trip wasn't approved.