Five days after the surprise attacks by Hamas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Benny Gantz, leader of one of the opposition parties (the centrist Blue and White), they reached an agreement to form a government of national unity and manage the next phases of the conflict with Hamas in a more shared manner, which according to several commentators could include a land invasion of the Gaza Strip. In fact it will be an expansion of the current right-wing government, which took office after the parliamentary elections in November 2022.
Yair Lapid, who leads the other opposition party, the centrist Yesh Atid, has not joined the new government and a source close to him told the Times of Israel that no negotiations are currently underway.
The new government also envisages the creation of a small “war cabinet” which will be composed of the prime minister, Gantz, defense minister Yoav Gallant, former army chief of staff Gadi Eizenkot (who is part of the of Gantz) and by the Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer. The creation of a small group to deal with the war was the condition expressed by Gantz, who in the past was Minister of Defense and before that head of the Israeli army.
Lapid had instead asked as a condition for entering the government the exclusion from it of far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties, whose influence so far had led commentators to describe Netanyahu’s as the most right-wing government in the history of Israel.
Former Defense Minister Benny Gantz (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP)
In the new government, Gantz’s party will have five ministers “without portfolio”, that is, heads of ministries without their own funds: the agreement provides that the government will last until the end of the war, and only until then. As long as the war is ongoing, the controversial justice reform desired by Netanyahu, which provides for a significant reduction in the powers of the Supreme Court, will not be discussed in parliament, and more generally the new government should not bring forward laws.
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