Netanyahu makes Likud MK Ze’ev Elkin minister of higher education and water resources

Prime Minister Netanyahu taps Likud MK Ze’ev Elkin, the outgoing environmental protection minister, to serve as the newly created positions of “minister of higher education minister” and “minister of water resources” in the new government.

According to a statement from the Likud party, the higher education portfolio includes responsibility for universities and all additional educational programs outside of the framework of regular schooling previously under the auspices of the Education Ministry. The water resources portfolio includes “all water issues that were the responsibility of the Ministry of Energy.”

Elkin will also sit on the high profile security cabinet. In a year and a half, he will take over the Transportation Ministry from Likud MK Miri Regev who will then be appointed foreign minister (when Blue and White MK Gabi Ashkenazi moves from the foreign ministry to the defense ministry, which will be vacated by Blue and White chair Gantz who is set to become prime minister in the rotation deal), the statement adds.

“Minister Elkin led a revolution in environmental protection and in reducing air pollution from transportation. It has also contributed greatly to the development of the city of Jerusalem to unprecedented scale,” Netanyahu says.

“I thank the Prime Minister for the trust and continue to serve the public faithfully in the various roles of the new government in higher education and complementary education and water resources in the first half of the term, and in the second half,” Elkin responds.

— Raoul Wootliff