Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
has informed members of his government of his intent to dissolve the War
Cabinet set up after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack.
The premier told ministers on Sunday that
the powerful forum, which was established when National Unity Party
leader Benny Gantz joined the wartime government in October, had become
obsolete following the latter’s June 9 decision to return to the
opposition.
Discussions on the war will continue to
take place in a small forum with the participation of Defense Minister
Yoav Gallant, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Shas Party
chairman Aryeh Deri, Kan News reported. The latter two have served as War Cabinet observer members in the past months.
Announcing his decision to exit the government last week, Gantz accused Netanyahu of preventing the Israel Defense Forces from reaching “true victory” on the southern and northern borders.
Following Gantz’s departure, National
Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir expressed the desire for his Otzma
Yehudit Party to join the War Cabinet, saying, “I will demand that our
power be expressed. I need to go back and be a leading force like we
were before Gantz came in.”
Speaking to journalists at the Knesset in
Jerusalem last week, Ben-Gvir said that he believed “the solution is
really that we will enter this [War] Cabinet and be able to have even
more influence.”
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who
heads the right-wing Religious Zionism Party, has also repeatedly
demanded that the War Cabinet be expanded to include representatives
from each coalition party.
Decisions made by the new war management forum, which Channel 12 News said would be called “Hamitbahon,” will be submitted to the broader Security Cabinet, which includes Smotrich and Ben-Gvir.
“Hamitbahon” translates as “the
kitchenette” and has been used in the past to refer to smaller advisory
forums to the Security Cabinet. The term comes from former prime
minister Golda Meir’s custom of summoning senior officials to her
kitchen on Friday nights.
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