In a surprise move, Israel's Defence Minister Moshe Ya'alon today resigned from the Cabinet of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu citing "strong disagreement" with him over the army's handling of recent violent protests by Palestinians.
Ya'alon's move came as Netanyahu seeks to bring hardliner Avigdor Lieberman of the Yisrael Beteinu party into his coalition, possibly as defence minister to shore up his one-seat majority in parliament.
Netanyahu leads a government backed by only 61 parliament members in a 120-member Knesset. The entry of Yisrael Beteinu in the coalition would swell its strength to 67.
"This morning I told the Prime Minister that I'm resigning from the government and the Knesset and taking a break from political life," Ya'alon said at a press conference in Tel Aviv adding, "I have no intention of leaving the public and political life, and in the future will return to compete for the national leadership of Israel.
"I saw before me the safety of Israel and its citizens in all of my acts and decisions, and the good of the country above all other considerations. This was so in security and professional matters and in matters of values and rule of the law," said Ya'alon who also served as the Chief of Staff of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) before joining politics.
Earlier, Ya'alon, 65, wrote on his Facebook account "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".
Emphasising that he worked harmoniously with Netanyahu for a long time, the defence ministry in his speech said that "Unfortunately, I recently found myself in strong disagreement on moral and professional issues with the prime minister, a number of ministers and several MKs (members of Knesset, the Israeli parliament).
"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 asserted.
The latest confrontation between Netanyahu and Ya'alon was over the public backing the defence minister gave senior IDF officials to "speak their mind" over the army's handling of recent spike in violence by Palestinian protesters.
His remarks followed Netanyahu's criticism of comments made by IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Yair Golan on the Holocaust Remembrance Day which sparked a strong public debate on the issue of serving defence officials expressing their opinion on public matters.
"In general, Israeli society is a healthy society, and the majority of it is sane and aims for a Jewish, democratic and liberal country," Ya'alon said adding, "But to my great sorrow, extremist and dangerous elements have taken over Israel and the Likud Party and are shaking the foundations and threatening to hurt its residents".
