Netanyahu’s yes-men get ministerial portfolios

Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz is running out of time. His mandate to form Israel’s future government expires Nov. 20. If he fails in his task, the Knesset will have 21 days to form a government. If that option fails as well, Israelis will be sent to the ballot boxes for a third time within a year. That would give Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu some four additional months to lead the interim government he has been heading since the April 2019 elections. In other words, Israel will be run for one whole year by a government that has not won the confidence of the Knesset.

Although he leads a provisional government, Netanyahu has been hiring and firing ministers to his heart’s content to ensure sufficient allies who can provide him with immunity from possible criminal prosecution. The four-member Knesset faction consisting of the HaBayit HaYehudi-National Union parties now holds the Education and Transportation ministries. The New Right faction with its three Knesset members now holds the Defense Ministry portfolio — all in return for their unconditional support and loyalty to Netanyahu.

Transportation Minister Bezalel Smotrich, named to his position in June, aspired to become justice minister but was given a budget-rich ministry instead. To his credit, it took him only a few hours to realize that although he would be unable to lead judicial reforms, he could achieve much more in a ministry also in charge of the roads and infrastructure in the West Bank — much more than by serving as a minister in charge of defending Netanyahu by waging war against the State Prosecution.

At a Nov. 18 Knesset Finance Committee session, Smotrich declared that he had made a dramatic decision: to shut down one of Tel Aviv’s three rail lines for six weeks to enable completion of its electrification. “A minister susceptible to political pressure would have balked. I have the courage,” he added.