Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is finally about to solve the issue of the appointment of a permanent chairman to the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
The committee, considered to be the most important of all the Knesset committees, has been without a chairman since November, when former chairman Avigdor Liberman returned to his previous position as foreign minister after he was acquitted of criminal charges.
No permanent chairman has been appointed for months because Netanyahu and Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid cannot agree on who that person will be.
Netanyahu and Lapid have quarreled over the identity of Liberman’s replacement, with Netanyahu wishing to appoint Likud MK Tzahi Hanegbi to the position, while Lapid has insisted on appointing MK Ofer Shelah of his party.
Finally, Channel 10 News reported on Friday, a compromise on the issue has been found. According to the report, the chairmanship of the committee will be rotated between Shelah and MK Ze’ev Elkin of the Likud.
According to the agreement, Elkin will be the first to chair the committee and will be replaced by Shelah. In addition, Hangebi will replace Elkin as Deputy Foreign Minister.
The report also stated that Netanyahu had offered Shelah the position of Deputy Defense Minister but Shelah turned it down, thus preventing the dismissal of Danny Danon, who has been a thorn in Netanyahu’s paw, declaring he would resign unless the fourth tranche of the release of terrorist murderers is cancelled and also embarrassing Netanyahu at the Likud Central Committee.
(Arutz Sheva’s North American Desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)