Top ministers agree to axe law allowing PM, defense minister to declare war

Following concerns of measure’s overreach, Security Cabinet members agree to roll it back to original form, enabling the high-level forum to make decisions without full cabinet

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, at the Knesset on October 24, 2017. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, at the Knesset on October 24, 2017. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90)

Members of the security cabinet agreed Wednesday to withdraw recent controversial Knesset legislation that allows the prime minister and defense minister to declare war without government approval.

Following public criticism of the measure, as well as serious concerns expressed by members of the government, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked proposed to roll back the measure to its original form — allowing the Security Cabinet to make the decision in certain circumstances without authorization from the full government, but not the prime minister and defense minister alone.

The top-secret forum is mandated to have at least seven members including the prime minister, defense minister, foreign minister and justice minister. It currently has 10 permanent members.

Shaked will now seek to relegislate the law in the Knesset within the coming month.

Haaretz noted that the original legislation was controversial too, however, with some legislators saying it contained loopholes that would still allow the prime minister to declare war without the full security cabinet, essentially allowing him to bypass ministers who might oppose the move.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, speaks with Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked in the Knesset, December 21, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

One member of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee (FADC) told Haaretz the premier could conceivably “announce he was convening the cabinet in four minutes, preventing any minister from attending, thus making the decision himself.”

There had been concern that the bill which allowed major military operations to be launched by the prime minister and defense minister alone in “extreme circumstances” handed them too much power, and there was also a fear that Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit could be forced to recommend it be struck down, due to constitutional overreach.

Sixty-two Knesset members voted the dramatic proposal into law earlier this month, beating out the 41 opposition MKs who opposed it on the grounds that the language of the law effectively gives free reign to the prime minister by removing all oversight.

The law did not specify exactly what “extreme circumstances” were, or who will determine them, saying only that the case will apply “if the issue is necessary due to urgency.”

The proposal — advanced by Netanyahu since last year — had been rejected earlier in the day by members of two key Knesset committees: Law and Justice, and the FADC. It was resubmitted, however, by Likud member and FADC chairman Avi Dichter during the second and third readings of a broader amendment, and was voted into law as part of that wider legislation.

FADC member Ofer Shela (Yesh Atid), who fought against the proposal in its current form, welcomed its rollback, saying it had been “a security, constitutional and moral danger.”

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