Israel: Netanyahu and Gantz agree to establish a national emergency government

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, leader of the opposition National Unity party, reached an agreement this Wednesday to form an emergency unity government to enhance security in the country after the brutal terrorist attack on Saturday that led to the start of the war against Hamas which this Wednesday marks its fifth day and which already has at least 1,200 dead Israelis.

According to several Israeli media reports, Gantz and Netanyahu met privately for about 30 minutes at the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv before giving the green light to the formation of this emergency government.

As part of the agreement, The Jerusalem Post reports, Gantz and his party partner, Gadi Eisenkot, will be sworn in as ministers and join a war cabinet with Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. According to the Times of Israel, Minister Ron Dermer will act as an observer in this war cabinet.

For now, a vacant position in the war cabinet has been left for the opposition leader, Yair Lapid, who refused in principle to be part of the emergency government if the Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit parties remain in it.

Another one of the agreements reached establishes that during the war period, no bills or government decisions that do not refer to the advancement of the conflict will be promoted. All appointments of senior officials will be extended during the period of war.

Who's who in Israel's new war cabinet?

Yoav Gallant, now Minister of Defense, began his administration by stating that he will wipe Hamas "off the face of the earth." Former Commander of the Israeli Armed Forces (IDF) and former Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gallant entered politics in 2015 with Kulano, a centrist party. He was Minister of Education and Aliyah and Integration before joining Likud in 2019.

Bibi's judicial reform led him to publicly fall out with the prime minister, who toyed with the idea of firing him in April this year. Faced with an adverse popular reaction, Netanyahu kept him in his position.

Gadi Eisenkot will also contribute his experience as Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the IDF, a position he held between 2015 and 2019 when he created the Dahiya Doctrine, which professes that the infrastructure of regimes considered hostile must be destroyed to prevent them from using them to harm Israel.

Finally, Ron Demer, former Israeli ambassador to the United States and now Minister of Strategic Affairs, will join as an observer. According to The Jerusalem Post, he was "one of Israel's most important ambassadors to the United States."