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News Analysis
With his far-right coalition partners refusing to end the war, the Israeli prime minister may soon have to choose between them and the agreement.
The Gaza cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas had yet to be ratified by Israel’s government on Thursday, but the battle over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political future has already begun.
Hours after the deal was announced, Mr. Netanyahu was facing a potential internal rebellion from far-right partners in his governing coalition on whose support he depends to remain in power.
There is a majority in the cabinet in favor of the cease-fire agreement, and if there is a vote it is expected to be approved even without the far-right parties’ votes.
But the far-right parties, led by Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, and the minister for national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, vehemently oppose the deal.
The far-right ministers have threatened to quit the government if Mr. Netanyahu proceeds from the first phase of the cease-fire agreement, which calls for a temporary, six-week truce, to a permanent one.
Mr. Netanyahu may soon have a fateful choice to make in the politically precarious weeks ahead: keep his coalition together by resuming the fight against Hamas in Gaza, or risk the coalition coming apart halfway through its four-year term and gambling on an early election.
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