Likud firebrand Tally Gotliv to replace Edelstein on key Knesset defense committee

Bennett slams ‘extremely irresponsible’ appointment of rabble-rousing MK who exposed a Shin Bet agent in a conspiracy theory she posted about Hamas’s invasion and anti-government protesters

Firebrand Likud MK Tally Gotliv will replace MK Yuli Edelstein as a member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, after he was ousted as part of a party spat, coalition whip and fellow Likud MK Ofir Katz announced Wednesday.

Gotliv, who is under investigation for revealing the identity of a Shin Bet officer, is also set to replace Edelstein in the subcommittee for intelligence, giving her access to highly classified information, according to Hebrew media.

The Likud removed Edelstein as committee head in July, after the lawmaker refused to support a bill to codify Haredi males’ exemptions from military service, as demanded by the Haredi parties then in the coalition.

Edelstein was removed from the panel entirely on Wednesday for what Katz said were his “repeated violations of faction discipline,” including a voting in favor of West Bank annexation last week, during a visit by US Vice President JD Vance.

Gotliv herself expressed support both for the ouster of Edelstein in July and for the bill that he had refused to back.

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett, who is mounting a bid for the premiership in the next elections, called Gotliv’s appointment “extremely irresponsible.”

Chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Yuli Edelstein, delivers a statement to the media on legislation to regulate Haredi yeshiva students’ enlistment in the military, at the Knesset in Jerusalem, July 15, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The intelligence sub-committee Gotliv was expected to join ‘is the holiest of holies of Knesset oversight of Israeli security,” said Bennett on X.

“The decision to bring into it a member of Knesset who is currently suspected of revealing classified secrets, violating the Shin Bet Law, and harming national security, is extremely irresponsible,” he added, referring to 2002 legislation that prohibits disclosing the identity of an agent.

“Nobody will be able to speak there freely anymore, and the civilian oversight that is so vital to the defense establishment will cease to exist,” he said. “This decision must be voided immediately.”

Bennett, who has frequently attacked the government for its bid to exempt Haredi men from military service, did not mention the issue in his statement.

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett visits at the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City, May 26, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Gotliv is known for her outbursts and controversial statements. In August, she was disavowed even within her own party for calling a court security guard a “Judenraete,” or Holocaust-era Jew deputized by the Nazis, when, due to Gotliv’s incessant interruptions, the guard removed her from a hearing on the alleged criminal ties between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s top aides and Hamas-backer Qatar.

Claiming parliamentary immunity, Gotliv defied police summons to testify in the investigation against her for revealing that the partner of key anti-government activist Shikma Bressler was a Shin Bet agent.

The revelation came amid a conspiracy theory advanced by Gotliv that leaders of the 2023 protests against the government’s judicial overhaul had colluded with Hamas prior to October 7, 2023, when the terror group invaded southern Israel, sparking the war in Gaza. Bressler has filed suit against Gotliv for circulating the unfounded theory.