Knesset approves Katz as defense minister, Sa’ar as FM after Gallant’s firing
Opposition leader Lapid calls on Katz to show ‘backbone’ and oppose Haredi draft exemptions
The Knesset on Thursday night approved the appointment of Likud’s Israel Katz as defense minister, replacing Yoav Gallant after his dismissal by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Replacing Katz as foreign minister is New Hope’s Gideon Sa’ar, whose appointment was also approved by parliament.
The Knesset okayed the appointments 58-0, with opposition members leaving the plenum in protest before voting began.
The session featured angry speeches and heckling from opposition members, who view Gallant’s dismissal as a cynical move by Netanyahu intended to enable the enactment of a law enshrining ultra-Orthodox draft evasion, which Gallant refused to support, and to prevent a hostage-ceasefire deal in the war in Gaza, which Gallant strongly advocated.
The legislation, which has been held up in committee for months, aims to enshrine in law the decades-long widespread exemption from military service of ultra-Orthodox males, an issue that has become increasingly contentious amid the strain on the IDF during more than a year of multi-front wars since Hamas’s invasion and massacre in southern Israel on October 7. The High Court of Justice ruled in June that there was no legal basis for the exemptions and ordered the government to draft ultra-Orthodox men.
“If you agree today to be appointed defense minister, the second most important position in this country, just to pass the draft-dodging law — that’s not the way you want to be remembered,” Opposition Leader Yair Lapid said during his speech. “They’ll say it was a stunt by Netanyahu, not because anyone believed in him, but to pass the draft-dodging law.
“If the day after this appointment you stand up and say, ‘I will not pass draft-dodging laws, my job is not to pass laws that allocate money to people who dodged military service during wartime,’ you will be remembered in history as someone who stood their ground.”
“Netanyahu has no way of firing you; he can’t fire two defense ministers during a war,” Lapid went on. “And they’ll say about you, ‘Here’s someone with a backbone.’ Just do the right thing and tell yourself, ‘I am the defense minister of the State of Israel, not of Netanyahu.'”
In sarcastic comments during his speech, MK Gilad Kariv, a member of the Democrats Party, said: “I suggest that Minister Katz demand tonight from Prime Minister Netanyahu to change his title so that he is not just the minister of defense, but instead be given the prestigious… and lengthy title of ‘minister for coalition defense’ or alternatively, ‘minister for defense of draft-dodgers.’ This way, the title will suit his great stature and the circumstances of his appointment.”
As part of an initial deal signed in September to have Sa’ar’s four-MK faction rejoin the coalition, the politician, who had previously been a harsh critic of Netanyahu, was given the freedom to vote his conscience on the ultra-Orthodox draft-related legislation, but he appeared to relinquish that right this week with his appointment as foreign minister.
Addressing Sa’ar, Kariv asked, “Do you support a comprehensive deal to bring back the hostages? Or are you aligning with the prime minister’s policy of continuing to abandon them, as Minister Gallant indicated today during his meeting with the hostages’ families?”
Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, a staunch Netanyahu loyalist, responded to the opposition taunts and criticisms: “The defense minister who is leaving today undermined the prime minister and the cabinet every step of the way. He knew what awaited us in Hezbollah’s tunnels and wanted us to sign a surrender agreement before entering Lebanon.”
Gallant’s firing on the eve of the US presidential election sparked two nights of protests across the country by demonstrators who viewed the former defense minister as the last check to Netanyahu in the cabinet.
Netanyahu had previously fired Gallant in March 2023 after the latter called to pause judicial overhaul legislation efforts, citing the overhaul’s adverse effects on Israel’s security, a result of the social division it caused. That firing led to spontaneous mass protests involving hundreds of thousands of Israelis, a general strike and the temporary pause of the overhaul. Gallant was reinstated several weeks later.
This week’s protests were widely estimated to have been in the low tens of thousands. The High Court of Justice earlier on Thursday dismissed petitions against Gallant’s sacking, ruling that Netanyahu’s move did not merit judicial intervention. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, the government’s chief legal adviser and a persistent target of criticism from coalition members, had firmly endorsed the legitimacy of Gallant’s dismissal in responding to the petitions.
