Cabinet Appoints Members of the Security Cabinet, the Ministerial Committee on the ISA, and Deputy Ministers.
The Israeli Cabinet, at its weekly meeting on Tuesday, made the following new appointments:
Ministerial Committee on National Security Affairs (the Security Cabinet)
Prime Minister and Chairman of the Committee – Benjamin Netanyahu
Defense Minister – Yoav Galant
Justice Minister – Yariv Levin
Foreign Minister – Eli Cohen
Interior Minister and Health Minister – Aryeh Deri
National Security Minister – Itamar Ben-Gvir
Finance Minister – Bezalel Smotrich
Strategic Affairs Minister – Ron Dermer
Transportation Minister – Miri Regev
Energy Minister – Yisrael Katz
Agriculture and Rural Development Minister – Avi Dichter
Ministerial Committee on Israeli Security Agency (ISA) Affairs:
Prime Minister and Chairman of the Committee – Benjamin Netanyahu
Justice Minister and Deputy Chairman of the Committee – Yariv Levin
Defense Minister – Yoav Galant
National Security Minister – Itamar Ben-Gvir
Education Minister – Yoav Kisch
Deputy ministers:
Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office – MK Avi Maoz
Minister in the Interior Ministry and Deputy Minister in the Health Ministry – MK Moshe Arbel
Deputy Minister in the Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry – MK Moshe Abutbul
Deputy Minister in the Culture and Sports Ministry – MK Yaakov Tesler
Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office and Deputy Minister in the Transportation Ministry – MK Uri Maklev
Deputy Minister in the Finance Ministry – MK Michal Woldiger
Pursuant to Article 25a of Basic Law: The Government, the deputy ministers will assume office after the Knesset has been notified of their appointments.
At the start of the weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu made the following statement:
“The previous government was not united on any national goal. They had only one goal – to prevent this moment; beyond that, nothing.
Everyone pulled in a different direction and the country stood still. As a result of this, many problems accumulated alongside the previous government’s complete inaction in many areas: Security, governance, the economy and advancing peace.
Our government is different and will act differently. We are united around clear national goals and will work together to realize them as has not been done in many years the State of Israel.
First of all, we are united on the security issue. We will work openly, from a position of strength, in the international arena against a return to the nuclear agreement, not only in talks with leaders behind closed doors but strongly and openly in the sphere of global opinion, which is now aware of the true dangers posed by Iran – the Iranian regime that is killing innocent citizens in and beyond Iran.
Unfortunately, in contrast to the prevailing opinion that this dangerous nuclear opinion has disappeared from the agenda following the recent events in Iran, I think that this possibility has not yet finally disappeared from the agenda.
Therefore, we will do everything to prevent the return to this bad agreement which is leading to a nuclear Iran under international auspices. We will also take vigorous action to prevent the Iranian military entrenchment in Syria and elsewhere and we will not wait.
We are also united regarding the restoration of personal security and we received a clear mandate from the public to restore it. We will act aggressively against lawbreakers wherever they are in order to restore personal security to every Israeli citizen, Jews and Arabs alike.
We are united regarding the strengthening of governance and we received a clear mandate from the public about this as well. To this end, we will introduce reforms that will increase governance and ensure the proper balance between the authorities.
We are united in the fight against the cost-of-living. We will take action to alleviate the situation for Israeli citizens who have absorbed steep price increases in the past year due to the combination of global inflation and the complete inaction of the outgoing government which did not even take minimal steps to alleviate and even prevent the situation that has occurred. Last night, I held a preliminary economic discussion with the Finance Minister, the Economy Minister and Prof. Avi Simhon about the immediate emergency steps that we will take on this matter in the coming days.
We are united in expanding the circle of peace, which I am certain also unites every Israeli citizen. After achieving four historic peace agreements in four months, we are also determined to deepen the existing peace agreements with six Arab countries and add to them historic breakthroughs with additional Arab countries in the region.
We have much of work to do and no time to waste.”
