Amid pressure, Netanyahu promises to appoint foreign minister within a month
PM tells cabinet he will fill key position in January, also hand out immigration portfolio next week and formalize his own appointment as defense minister
Raoul Wootliff is a former Times of Israel political correspondent and Daily Briefing podcast producer.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet ministers on Friday that he plans to appoint one of them as foreign minister within a month, ending a nearly four-year stretch where he has held the portfolio for himself.
Amid criticism over his holding a number of key government portfolios, including the coveted Foreign Ministry, Netanyahu sent a letter to his cabinet secretary saying he “intends” to give up the position in January. He also said he would appoint an immigration and absorption minister, another position he currently holds, next week.
The announcement appears to be an effort to smooth his own appointment as defense minister, which he said Friday he plans to formalize with a Knesset vote next week.
Speaking at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv last month, Netanyahu said he will take over the job of defense chief following Avigdor Liberman’s resignation, saying Israel was in the midst of a military campaign which he claimed he was the only person capable of leading the country through.
Hours before that announcement, Netanyahu said he planned to make new appointments to “key ministerial positions within days.” Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party had held the Immigration and Absorption Ministry in addition to the Defense Ministry. Senior Likud sources said at the time that the prime minister would appoint lawmakers from his own party as foreign and immigration ministers.
In addition to holding the premiership, Netanyahu has served as foreign minister since the formation of his government in 2015, a move that he initially justified by claiming he was keeping the position for the opposition Zionist Union head in an attempt to entice them to join the government.
Several members of his own party were initially furious that he did not appoint one of them as foreign minister, with senior Likud ministers Gilad Erdan and Israel Katz claiming to have been promised the portfolio by Netanyahu.
Instead, Netanyahu divided various responsibilities previously under the Foreign Ministry to various members of his own party.
Erdan was given responsibility, among other matters, for the Strategic Affairs Ministry, a recent construct tasked with overseeing Israel’s battle against international boycott efforts — traditionally the purview of the Foreign Ministry. The previous strategic affairs minister, Yuval Steinitz (now minister of energy and infrastructure) was meanwhile appointed to preside over the effort to thwart the Iran nuclear deal. Now-former Likud minister Silvan Shalom, whose main job was running the Interior Ministry, was also made responsible for peace efforts with the Palestinians — under Netanyahu’s watchful eye — and for the strategic dialogue that Israel maintains with the United States. And Israel Katz, finally, while continuing in his post as transportation minister, was also given control of the Ministry of Intelligence, another government office with unclear responsibilities.
In April 2016, the opposition Yesh Atid party submitted a petition to the High Court against the number of portfolios that Netanyahu had reserved for himself at the time: health, regional cooperation, communications and foreign affairs, as well as the premiership.
The court ruled 4-1 that the prime minister could continue holding all four portfolios, but three justices gave the prime minister eight months to reduce the load, saying they might review the situation if he did not, Haaretz reported at the time.
The justices said that it was hard to believe that Netanyahu could properly manage so many ministries and that the situation was not appropriate in a democracy.
The Times of Israel Community.