Member of Netanyahu’s party to boycott Trump’s Knesset speech, arguing his deal is an ‘illusion’

Likud MK Amit Halevi says he will not attend US President Donald Trump’s speech at the Knesset tomorrow, which is intended to coincide with the release of hostages from Hamas captivity in Gaza under the ceasefire deal he helped broker.

He says that Trump’s speech is an “illusion of victory” and a “false spectacle,” and that he “will not be able to participate in the parliamentary gathering with US President Donald Trump and his team.”

“This agreement is the opposite of victory,” Halevi says. “We must tell the public the truth, bow our heads in pain and humility in the face of the military failure, learn lessons, and plan our steps to win in the future.”

Halevi criticizes Israel’s concessions, saying it has agreed to “the establishment of a Palestinian state on ancestral land in Gaza… to allow its antisemitic enemies Turkey and Qatar a foothold here, to leave Hamas and its neo‑Nazi infrastructure intact at the height of their power, and to add thousands of arch‑murderers who will return to its ranks to continue its plan to annihilate Israel.”

Separately, Noam Party chairman MK Avi Maoz says that he also will not attend Trump’s speech.

“You have to be completely blind to believe that Trump’s initiative turned out well,” says Maoz, the sole MK representing the ultraconservative party, who quit the coalition in July.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet voted Friday for all hostages to be freed in exchange for Palestinian security prisoners, despite vocal objections from the premier’s far-right coalition partners, in accordance with the first phase of Trump’s broader Gaza peace plan.

Halevi has long expressed skepticism about Israel’s wartime achievements, claiming last year that the IDF overstated the damage it inflicted on Hamas. He was removed from the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in May after voting against extending the government’s authority to issue emergency call-up orders for IDF reservists.