Coalition members jostle to chair key Knesset committee
With Avidgor Liberman returning to Foreign Ministry, Yesh Atid wants its man to preside over Foreign Affairs and Defense panel
Stuart Winer is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
The impending return of MK Avigdor Liberman to his former position as foreign minister has prompted the Likud-Beytenu faction’s coalition partners to demand compensation in the form of the coveted chairmanship of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
Liberman’s return to the cabinet to take up the prestigious portfolio, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has held for him since the elections, means he will be vacating the chairmanship of the influential committee.
Liberman’s reappointment gives his Yisrael Beytenu party an additional ministerial position, and Finance Minister Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid faction has indicated it wants something in return. Specifically, Lapid wants MK Ofer Shelah (Yesh Atid) to chair the FADC in addition to giving Science and Technology Minister Yaakov Peri (Yesh Atid) a seat in the security cabinet, Netanyahu’s inner circle of ministers.
However, Likud-Beytenu prefers MK Tzachi Hanegbi (Likud), a confidant of Netanyahu, for the committee chairmanship, reprising a role he filled from 2006 to 2010. Sources in the party say that Liberman’s return was always expected and that therefore no adjustments need to be made. But Yesh Atid claims that there was always an understanding to the effect that if Liberman resumed his post as foreign minister it would be at the expense of another ministerial-level position held by Yisrael-Beytenu, and not in addition to it.
The Jewish Home party also took issue Sunday with the imminent cabinet reshuffle. Party chief Naftali Bennett said it, too, may want adjustments to coalition agreements.
Resolving the conflict is a matter of some urgency, as the FADC, along with its various subcommittees, cannot operate without a chairperson, and Knesset protocol prohibits appointing a temporary stand-in.
On Sunday the cabinet unanimously approved Liberman’s appointment as foreign minister.
Liberman has waited almost a year to return to the Foreign Ministry since stepping down over an indictment on fraud and breach of trust charges. He was acquitted last week on all charges by a three-judge panel of the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court.
Before he can be sworn in as minister, Liberman’s appointment must be confirmed by a Knesset vote that was scheduled for Monday.
Haviv Rettig Gur contributed to this report.
