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Netanyahu's New Security Team Lacks Experience

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet meetings will now include new, inexperienced members, and it is with them that he will have to make fateful decisions, writes Mazal Mualem.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) gestures as he speaks during the first cabinet meeting of the 33rd Israeli government, in Jerusalem March 18, 2013. Netanyahu's new governing coalition took office after a parliamentary vote on Monday with powerful roles reserved for supporters of settlers in occupied territory. REUTERS/David Vaaknin/Pool (JERUSALEM - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR3F5ZH
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In the recent elections, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lost a lot more than his ultra-Orthodox partners, who had provided a coalition safety net for him. On Monday evening, March 18, at the swearing-in of the new government, Netanyahu sadly bade farewell to the octet members — the experienced and highly regarded members of the defense forum who had surrounded him in the last four years.

In his third government, which started operations this week, Netanyahu decided to cancel the octet and transform the diplomatic-security cabinet into a highest-level security forum.

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