Erdan defends his appointment to multiple ministries

The freshest of government ministers, Gilad Erdan, defends the series of portfolios he was given by PM Netanyahu in order to enter the government.

Erdan, who was appointed minister of public security, strategic affairs and public diplomacy, says on Channel 2 that “there was nothing insulting” in the process of his negotiating with Netanyahu his return to the government.

“There was a substantive negotiation on a point I insisted upon — I wanted the Foreign Affairs portfolio… But when the prime minister clarified that he was going to keep it, I respected that. When I received the public security portfolio, I wanted to make sure I have the tools to effect change,” Erdan reports a day after he was sworn in at the Knesset.

Asked why he needed three ministries, Erdan answers that “my test will be with the public. I am known as a minister who works from dawn till dusk. I have achieved budgets that were not there [in the ministry] before and I will take the responsibility for change [in the portfolios under my purview].”

Erdan dismissed reports that Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon adamantly opposes allowing more funding for the ministries Erdan heads: “I am telling you that I will get these budgets.”

Erdan was asked about Benny Begin, a veteran Likud member who was brought in from the cold before the election, given the position of minister without portfolio and apparently will soon have to give it up after Erdan’s entry to the government, to avoid inflating the number of government ministers.

“I spoke to him… I don’t think I need to apologize to him. On the evening of swearing-in, he told me he wasn’t even expecting his name to be read out loud. I am very sorry he will need to give it up, and I think that if Kahlon and Bennett change their mind, a man of his caliber is worthy of being a minister,” Erdan says, responding to Kahlon’s reported refusal to let the government include one additional minister.