A house in Kibbutz Be’eri that was damaged during the Hamas attack. Photo / Sergey Ponomarev, The New York Times
A house in Kibbutz Be’eri that was damaged during the Hamas attack. Photo / Sergey Ponomarev, The New York Times
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the small group of officials would play a key role in determining when Israel begins a ground invasion of Gaza.
Before the deadly Hamas attack October 7, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was running a divisive government widely seen as the most conservative inIsrael’s history. Amid anticipation of a protracted campaign to eradicate Hamas, Netanyahu responded to political pressure and formed a unity government that included opposition leaders.
One of its main conditions was the establishment of a “war-management Cabinet” that would oversee the fighting and dilute the power of far-right politicians in Netanyahu’s government. Netanyahu said in a prime-time address Wednesday that the war Cabinet would play a key role in determining when Israel begins a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip.
Three main members of the war Cabinet vote and make decisions:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in Tel Aviv this month. Photo / Kenny Holston, The New York Times
Netanyahu, of the Likud party, is Israel’s longest-serving prime minister and has dominated Israeli politics for nearly 15 years. He served as prime minister from 1996-99 and again from 2009-21 before returning to office in late 2022.
Yoav Gallant
Defence Minister Yoav Gallant of Israel. Photo / AP
A member of Netanyahu’s party, is Israel’s defence minister. A former general, he had broken with Netanyahu this year in calling for the suspension of an overhaul of Israel’s judiciary, a plan that had sparked huge protests. Some Israelis opposed to Netanyahu view him as more responsible and pragmatic than his colleagues.
Benny Gantz
Benny Gantz, a former Israeli military chief of staff. Photo / AP
Gantz is a former military chief of staff who oversaw Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza in 2014 and has been one of Netanyahu’s chief political rivals, but joined his emergency government after the October 7 attacks. Gantz and his colleagues from the opposition National Unity alliance are seen as more moderate, experienced and pragmatic than Netanyahu’s earlier partners, lending its decisions more credibility.
The unity government agreement also includes two “observer” members in the war Cabinet who do not vote but participate in the meetings. They include:
Gadi Eisenkot, a former Israeli military chief of staff. Photo / AP
Eisenkot is an opposition politician, is a former Israeli military chief of staff. During his tenure, Israel escalated strikes in Syria in an effort to prevent Iranian-backed militias from entrenching their control on Israel’s borders.
Ron Dermer
Israel's minister for strategic affairs, Ron Dermer. Photo / AP
Dermer, a Likud member, is one of Netanyahu’s closest advisers. Once the Israeli ambassador to the United States, he currently serves as Israel’s minister for strategic affairs. He worked on Israel’s attempt to normalise ties with Saudi Arabia and to curb Iran’s nuclear programme. Before the war, he was also one of the few Israeli politicians from Netanyahu’s coalition to regularly and publicly speak with US counterparts.
Other hard-line figures are not members of the war Cabinet but are in a broader security Cabinet of government ministers that also plays a role in running the war effort. They include Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister and an ultranationalist who opposes Palestinian sovereignty and has called to govern Israel by Jewish law, and Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister and one of the most extreme voices in the Israeli government.
On paper, the war Cabinet was established to implement the decisions of the broader security Cabinet, said professor Amichai Cohen, an expert in national security law at the Israel Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem-based research group.
Some major decisions, such as whether to agree to a cease-fire, would probably require the security Cabinet’s approval, he said. But there is no law that defines the security Cabinet’s authority, and the war Cabinet probably has wide latitude to operate and carry out “the real management of the war,” he said.
