Liberman appointment to move ahead as coalition crisis solved

The government is expected to vote to approve the appointments of Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Liberman as defense minister Monday as part of a new deal signed last week with the ruling Likud which will see the five-seat party join the coalition.

Party member Sofa Landver is also expected to be given the nod for the immigrant absorption minister post, after a possible coalition crisis was resolved in 11th-hour talks overnight.

The two are set to be sworn in as ministers on Monday afternoon after votes in the cabinet and in the Knesset.

The confirmation will come after late-night talks led to the resolution of a coalition crisis that threatened to topple the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over a demand by Jewish Home head Naftali Bennett for an overhaul to the security cabinet.

Bennett, a senior cabinet member, had threatened to vote against the appointment of Liberman to the Defense Ministry — thus torpedoing the coalition deal Likud and Yisrael Beytenu signed last week — if his demand for greater intelligence-sharing in the high-level security cabinet was not met.

The Jewish Home head wanted Netanyahu to appoint a military attaché for the sensitive 10-member inner cabinet committee to provide ministers with real-time security updates, coordinate additional fact-finding visits to IDF bases and other military zones, and facilitate easier access to classified information.

Netanyahu on Sunday accepted a proposal put forth by Health Minister Yaakov Litzman (UTJ) that acting head of the National Security Council Brigadier General (ret.) Yaakov Nagel, or his deputy, temporarily act as a military attaché to the cabinet.

The temporary position would remain filled until a suggested committee formed by Netanyahu to find a more permanent solution has finished its work.

Bennett’s threat had initially caused the Knesset to postpone a plenum vote scheduled for Monday to approve Liberman’s appointment. The vote was later reinstated.

A Jewish Home vote against Netanyahu’s pick for the sensitive defense post would have torpedoed the newly inked coalition deal, part of a months-long efforts by the prime minister to expand his wafer-thin Knesset majority.

The Likud had warned that a vote against Liberman’s appointment would have meant the immediate firing of Jewish Home’s three cabinet ministers — Education Minister Bennett, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel — and likely the collapse of the coalition.

Netanyahu’s current 61-seat coalition needs Jewish Home’s eight votes to pass Liberman’s appointment in the 120-member Knesset.

Netanyahu on Friday offered to establish a committee headed by former Israel National Security Council head Yaakov Amidror that would examine ways to reform the security cabinet.