Israel's Environment Minister resigns

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today suffered a setback after a second cabinet minister resigned today in a week, accusing him of pushing the country towards "extremism".
Warning Netanyahu to "wake up before it's too late", Environment Minister Avi Gabbay said that he found it difficult to remain part of a government that undermined the ties with the US, broadened the rift within Israeli society and tried to silence critical voices.
The straw that broke the camel's back and finally led him to resign, he said, was the 'dismissal' of Moshe Yaalon as defence minister and his replacement with ultra-nationalist Avigdor Lieberman.

Netanyahu signed up Lieberman as the new defence minister on Wednesday in a pact reinforcing his coalition to six parties with control over 66 of parliament's 120 seats, up from a razor-thin majority of 61.
"A defence minister in a country surrounded by enemies isn't just another minister," the outgoing minister said.
"He is the most important minister...The removal of a professional and reasonable defence minister who in a year managed to calm the uprising is a step I couldn't make peace with," Gabbay asserted.

He also stressed that the cabinet reshuffle will further widen the rifts within Israeli society.

"The public wanted a rightist government, but the establishment of an extremist government isn't right," he said.
He asked Netannyahu "to wake up before it's too late and remember that defence is defence, and that he leans on people and leadership, and not just tanks and planes."
Gabbay further accused the government of trying to weaken public service and bar officials and military officers from publically expressing their opinion, an issue on which the Prime Minister had differences with Yaalon as well.
He citedthe dismissal of the Electricity Authority chief, who was critical of the gas deal, and the backlash against Deputy Chief of Staff Yair Golan's Holocaust Day remarks as examples.