Netanyahu Disbands War Cabinet + Other Headlines

Tuesday Digest (06.18.24)

Netanyahu Disbands War Cabinet

Yesterday morning, Israeli officials announced that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had dissolved his war cabinet. This move was expected after former general Benny Gantz and observer Gadi Eisenkot, more centrist members of the cabinet, resigned in protest over Netanyahu’s management of the war with Hamas.

The Jerusalem Post describes the purpose of the war cabinet this way:

The war cabinet, which was also known as the “small cabinet,” was authorized to make day-to-day decisions regarding the war while bringing broader policy decisions to the larger, statutory security cabinet. In response to a query by The Jerusalem Post, a spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s Office said that the security cabinet will now be convened at a higher frequency. In addition, Netanyahu will hold ad-hoc “security consultations” on specific matters when necessary.

The move gives Netanyahu an excuse for not inviting far-right politicians Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich into the cabinet as replacement members. Both had demanded that they be added, especially since Netanyahu is in power because of the ruling coalition those two members brought into the Knesset. But they are controversial and hardline figures, and he has been attempting to distance himself from their most incendiary comments.