Benjamin Netanyahu names himself Israel's defense minister after resignation - Polidicks

https://www.timesofisrael.com/naming-himself-defense-chief-netanyahu-says-no-room-for-politics-in-security/ Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Sunday night that he will take on the post of defense minister following Avigdor Liberman’s resignation, rejected calls for new elections, and said that Israel was in the midst of a military campaign, during which “you don’t play politics.” During a highly anticipated speech delivered at the Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv, which coincided with Israel’s main nightly news broadcasts, Netanyahu said it would be wrong and “irresponsible” to bring down the government and force new elections during “one of our most difficult security periods.” “We are in them midst of a military campaign, and you don’t abandon during a campaign, you don’t play politics,” he said, in a stinging critique of Liberman, who resigned last week, and Education Minister Naftali Bennett, who is threatening to follow suit. “The security of the state is above all else,” Netanyahu said. Bennett has threatened to bring down the government if he is not appointed defense minister. Without the Jewish Home, Netanyahu’s coalition would shrink from 61 seats to just 53 and lose the required majority of the 120-seat Knesset to survive no-confidence motions. Bennett, along with Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, are planning to quit the government on Monday morning, according to television reports on Sunday night. Liberman last Wednesday announced his resignation as defense minister because the prime minister had accepted an informal truce with Hamas, and slammed Netanyahu for “failing to instill Israel’s deterrence” against the Islamist terror group. “What happened yesterday, the ceasefire, together with the deal with Hamas, is a capitulation to terror. There is no other way of explaining it,” Liberman told reporters on Wednesday of the ceasefire deal. Following Liberman’s resignation, Bennett said he could only remain in the government if he were to be appointed defense minister, so that he could “return Israel to winning again.” Shortly after the reports were published, the Likud party released a statement saying the prime minister would “appoint ministers in the coming days,” without elaborating. Currently, the prime minister holds the foreign affairs, defense, health, and immigration absorption portfolios. Don't know much about Israeli politics but can the prime minister just make himself the head of different departments? That sounds incredibly susceptible to authoritarianism.

That doesn't sound autocratic at all

The minister resigned because Netanyahu managed a ceasefire with Hamas, and the guy who wants to be the new minister isn't happy with it either.

more proof that these guys have clung to the office for far too long.

PM says he's trying to 'prevent unnecessary elections' because 'you don't abandon during a military campaign" Well then, how convenient for him to have the country constantly in a military campaign.

Thank you Netanyahu for abolishing the useless and arcane practice of elections.

Textbook fascist tactics.

So Netanyahu sucks but both the former defence minister and his proposed replacement want to go back to endless war with Hamas? This pretty much sounds like an unwinnable situation short of an actual changing of the guard in the Israeli government.

Seems to be awfully common even in western developed democracies. Awful leader you can't get rid of because the next two in line are more awful each

Israel was a mistake.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nifdo0qWTFA