The new Israeli Defense Minister, Israel Katz, was sworn in on the night of Thursday to Friday 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, Israel Katz, who promised to defeat THE “enemies” of the country. Gideon Saar, current minister without portfolio, succeeds Mr. Katz as head of diplomacy.
Mr. Katz’s last day in foreign affairs was punctuated by a diplomatic incident with France, when agents of the French Consulate were briefly arrested by Israeli police at a site that the head of French diplomacy Jean was to visit in Jerusalem -Noel Barrot.
The dismissal of the defense minister in the middle of the war provoked strong reactions and demonstrations across the country. Speaking at the Knesset on Thursday evening, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid urged Israel Katz to be “the minister of soldiers and fighters”. He called on him to oppose in particular the bill which would allow ultra-Orthodox Jews to benefit from an exemption from military service, a crucial question at the heart of the political debate since the start of the war.
Mr. Gallant had suggested that he would not support this bill, calling a few days ago for the recruitment of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews, endangering the future of the coalition, supported by the ultra-Orthodox parties. orthodox.
