Netanyahu said planning to hand over all 3 Otzma Yehudit portfolios to Haim Katz
Prime minister ‘is once again choosing petty politics that endangers lives,’ says Yesh Atid, calling to close two of the three available ministries
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is planning to appoint Tourism Minister Haim Katz to head all three ministerial positions left vacant when the far right Otzma Yehudit party quit the government earlier this week, multiple Hebrew language media outlets reported on Wednesday evening.
If the reports are correct, Katz would take over all three portfolios, in addition to the one he already holds, although he would only be tapped to serve in an acting capacity as an interim minister for a period of three months, rather than receiving permanent appointments.
One reason for making the appointments temporary is Netanyahu’s desire to signal to Otzma Yehudit chairman and former national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir that the portfolios are waiting for him, should he wish to return to the coalition, the Ynet news site reported.
On Sunday morning, Ben Gvir announced that his party would pull out of the coalition in protest of the ceasefire deal reached with Hamas. He, Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu, and Negev, Galilee and National Resilience Minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf all submitted their resignations — which went into effect on Tuesday morning at 10:00 a.m.
Following Ben Gvir’s resignation, Netanyahu was widely expected to give the National Security Ministry to someone within his Likud party, to leave the door open for Ben Gvir to later return to the government.
Ben Gvir had previously told reporters that, despite leaving the coalition, he would be willing to rejoin, should the war eventually resume.

However, due to political infighting within the coalition over the newly-vacant portfolios, Netanyahu did not immediately appoint successors to the three former ministers. As such, he was automatically appointed to take their places on an acting basis, violating a prohibition on criminal defendants serving as ministers.
Over the past several days, press reports focused on Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter as the top contender to replace Ben Gvir as minister in charge of police.
Speaking with The Times of Israel on Sunday, a coalition source described Regional Cooperation Minister David Amsalem as “angling” for Wasserlauf’s job leading the Negev, Galilee and National Resilience Ministry and speculated that Eliyahu’s office could be merged with another ministry.
Both Wasserlauf and Eliyahu’s ministries have been deemed superfluous by the Finance Ministry, which recommended shutting them down in late 2023.
According to Channel 13, final decisions on filling the ministerial positions were put off in the wake of demands by the ultra-Orthodox Shas party and other coalition partners.
Katz is a longtime Likud lawmaker who has previously served as welfare minister.
In 2022, he received a six-month suspended sentence and a NIS 75,000 (approximately $23,400) fine after reaching a plea bargain, in which he confessed to the lesser charge of conspiring to achieve a legitimate target via illegitimate means, but not to the more serious accusation of corruption.
The lawmaker was accused of advancing a bill on corporate bond repayment sought by a financial consultant who was a close friend and financial adviser to Katz, which benefited the adviser financially once it became law. Katz was also accused of concealing those conflicts of interest.
Responding to the news, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party slammed Netanyahu, stating that the Negev and Heritage ministries were “unnecessary” and should be closed.

“The National Security portfolio is a portfolio that deals with human lives and not a work arrangement for the tourism minister. Over the past two years, terrorist attacks have been rampant, the number of people murdered has soared, domestic violence is on the rise, and traffic accidents are at a new high,” the party tweeted.
“Netanyahu is once again choosing petty politics that endangers lives. Until the disaster government and its leader go home, the next disaster is only a matter of time.”
On Monday, the prime minister chose Likud MK Boaz Bismuth to chair the Knesset National Security Committee in place of Otzma Yehudit MK MK Zvika Fogel.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.