Two bills proposed by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) giving the Security Cabinet greater authority were approved by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation Sunday, ensuring the support of the governing coalition.
The first proposal states that the government, with the approval of the prime minister, would delegate authority to the Security Cabinet to initiate a military operation, even if the probability was extremely high or near-certain that the operation would lead to the outbreak of war.
The second proposal enshrines into law the Cabinet's authority over military decisions. While Israel's Security Cabinet has been given significant power over military decisions in the past, this authority was never codified into law.
Together, the two bills were drawn up in response to recommendations made by a committee appointed by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to examine how to improve the decision-making processes of the Cabinet on military and security issues and to make the Cabinet more efficient in deal with such issues.
The committee addressed the issue of 'declarations of war' in its report and stated that the government must clarify the authority and role of the Cabinet in the approval of military operations under section 40 of the Basic Law.
According to Shaked, "The law addresses the existing situation ... In the era of social media and the speed of media and the danger of leaks, we must adapt ourselves to a more modern security policy and improve the work of the government and the Cabinet as much as possible."