Kara has complained that he has been subjected to a campaign of slander in his efforts designed to eject from a position of influence within the Likud party.
By JEREMY SHARONCommunications Minister Ayoub Kara(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Ayoub Kara resigned his post as communications minister on Monday, a step which comes swift on the heels of his decision to withdraw his candidacy for the position of ambassador to Egypt.Kara complained that he has been subjected to a campaign of slander and attack ever since he was appointed communications minister in 2017, and that leading Likud officials sought to eject him from a position of influence within the party.Kara has served as communications minister since May 2017, but was placed 39th on the Likud electoral list for the last elections and therefore did not make it into the Knesset.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was reportedly considering appointing him as ambassador to Egypt, but was met with heavy opposition from Israel’s diplomatic establishment, with 18 former ambassadors objecting to Kara’s complete lack of diplomatic experience.Kara has also sparked some notable diplomatic incidents over various actions he has taken, such as posing for a picture with the prime minister of the breakaway Sahrawi Republic, partially controlled by Morocco, and for saying in Italy that an earthquake which hit the country was divine retribution for voting against Israel at the UN.In his letter of resignation to Netanyahu on Monday, Kara said he was quitting as minister to bring an end to the “hunt” against him, but said he would continue in political life, although along which avenue he was not yet sure.“Since I was appointed communications minister, a campaign of biased slander began against me stemming from prehistoric attitudes, and every success turned into a failure,” he wrote to Netanyahu: “including biased criticism internally and externally, the peak of which was cooperation among the Likud leadership in order to weaken and expel me from the centers of power in the [Likud] movement, including preventing me from running in the [Likud’s reserved slot for] minorities.”In April, Kara accused MKs David Amsalem, David Bitan and Minister Haim Katz of working to prevent him from obtaining a reserved spot on the Likud’s electoral list for the Druze minority.“In order to bring an end to this hunt against me, and in order to continue to serve the State of Israel, I am not retiring from public life but I am setting out to fight to clean my name and to clean the Likud of positions [reminiscent of the] Mapai [Party], which have infiltrated into the party in recent years,” he said.The outgoing minister said he would continue his political service for the State of Israel as well as his Druze brethren, who he implied do not have sufficient or fitting political representation for their societal needs.“I will always fight for the security of Israel and for the security of my people, the tribe of Jethro, my brothers the non-Jewish Druze who tied their fate to the Jewish people,” wrote Kara in his resignation letter.“I will ensure they have fitting representation and an honorable seat at the table of government and not just at the table of war. We will not be lumberjacks and water carriers,” he averred.
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