New Israeli Defense Minister takes oath
Israel’s new Defense Minister, Israel Katz, was sworn in Thursday night in front of Parliament, two days after the surprise dismissal of his predecessor.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Tuesday after differences over the conduct of the war in Gaza, and replaced him with his Foreign Affairs counterpart Katz, who promised to defeat the “enemies” of the country. Gideon Saar, currently minister without portfolio, succeeds Katz as head of diplomacy.
Katz’s last day in foreign affairs was marked by a diplomatic incident with France, when agents from the French consulate were briefly arrested by Israeli police officers at a place that the head of French diplomacy was to visit in Jerusalem, Jean-Noël Barrot. .
The dismissal of the Minister of Defense in the middle of the war provoked strong reactions and demonstrations throughout the country. Speaking in the Knesset on Thursday afternoon, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid urged Israel Katz to be “the minister of soldiers and combatants”. He asked him to oppose, in particular, the bill that would allow ultra-Orthodox Jews to benefit from an exemption from military service, a crucial issue at the center of political debate since the start of the war.
Gallant had suggested that he would not support this bill, calling a few days ago for the recruitment of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews, jeopardizing the future of the coalition, supported by ultra-Orthodox parties.
