I’ve been writing posts that refer to the extreme right ministers who managed to squeak out a win around December 2022, whereupon they rescued from political obscurity a criminally trice indicted Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu by inviting him to lead their cause. These right-wingers make the “freedom caucus” MAGA republicans in the US Congress look like amateurs.

The following article lists some of these ministers.

As per the December 30, 2023 Jewish Chronicle report, “Netanyahu’s new cabinet: who’s who?” by Georgia L. Gilholy:

“In December of 2022, Benjamin Netanyahu’s new coalition received its official vote of approval in the Knesset ahead of the swearing-in ceremony.”

“The now six-time Prime Minister’s hard-right alliance garnered 63 votes out of the Israeli parliament’s 120 members.”

“Speaking to MKs today, Mr. Netanyahu vowed to make the country of 9.4 million a ”world power” under his watch while outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid said the event marked “an uneasy transfer of the baton.”

Likud

Benjamin Netanyahu

Prime Minister

“The Likud veteran who previously served as Prime Minister for 12 successive years is returning to government. Still under investigation on bribery and corruption charges, the 73-year-old has denied all wrongdoing and seems set on doing all he can to make his coalition work. Despite stressing that Likud is by far the largest party among its coalition bedfellows, his hard-right allies across several parties may prove difficult to keep in check.”

“The one thing that is likely to be somewhat reassuring is that not everything that’s written in these [coalition] agreements will be carried out,” Sima Kadmon wrote in YNet. ”As we learned from Netanyahu, pledges are one thing and implementation is another.”

Yoav Gallant

Defence Minister 

“The Jaffa-born ex-general is a respected military expert but was forced to step down from his upcoming role as chief of general staff in 2011 after claims that he seized public lands for private use near his home. In 2012 a local planning committee partially cleared Mr Gallant of wrongdoing after admitting he had constructed his home on 350 square meters of property accidentally listed as his, meaning he had not been aware it was public land. The decision did not address the alleged construction of an illegal road to his house and an olive garden on nearby public lands being probed by the state comptroller and attorney general. He has previously served as Minister of Aliyah and Integration and Minister of Education.”

Shlomo Karhi

Communications Minister

“The first-time minister has backed the closure of the KAN public broadcaster and Israel’s Army Radio.”

Haim Katz

Tourism Minister

“Last year the ex-Labour, Welfare, and Social Services Minister was handed a six-month suspended sentence after pleading guilty to charges of a conflict of interest and conspiracy to achieve a lawful purpose by improper means.”

Yoav Kisch

Education Minister 

“His role will also include liaising between the Knesset and the Netanyahu-led government, meaning key parts of the Education brief are to be handled by other departments.”

Yariv Levin

Justice Minister

“The attorney has clocked up over a decade of service in Likud cabinets and is set to oversee a slew of controversial legal reforms, including plans to junk the Supreme Court’s veto over Knesset legislation.”

Shas

Haim Biton

Minister within the Education Ministry

“This will be Mr. Biton’s first ministerial role. The Office of the Attorney General previously ruled that he could not continue as both CEO of Shas and the party’s Ma’ayan Hinukh Torani school network.”

Michael Malchieli

Religious Affairs Minister

“The freshman minister has already signed an order to delay the previous government’s plans to enable private organisations to provide supervision services for kosher certification which the Chief Rabbinate currently has a monopoly on.”

Aryeh Deri

Interior Minister, Health Minister 

“The Charedi party leader was slapped with a suspended sentence after pleading guilty to tax fraud earlier this year.”

“While current laws prohibit people handed custodial punishments in the previous seven years from becoming ministers, they fail to outline whether this applies to suspended sentences. Mr Deri was also jailed for 22 months between 2000 and 2002 after being found guilty of accepting the equivalent of $155,000 in bribes during his tenure as Interior Minister under Yitzhak Rabin.”

Religious Zionism

Bezalel Smotrich

Finance Minister within the Defence Ministry

“The Religious Zionism leader with a history of anti-Arab rhetoric has been granted powers to appoint the head of COGAT, Israel’s unit responsible for civil affairs in the West Bank, which includes the construction of settlements. Washington fiercely lobbied against his ambitions to the defense portfolio. He supports Israeli sovereignty over the entire West Bank.”

Orit Strock

National Missions Minister

“Ms. Strock will oversee a new ministry that includes powers over settlements, military service, and pre-military academies. Her role is also set to receive responsibilities carved out from ministries that oversee culture and identity. An official from her department will sit as a member of local and national planning committees. In December she suggested doctors might refuse to treat gay people if the doctor felt the treatment violated their religious beliefs.”

Ofir Sofer

Immigration and Absorption Minister 

“Mr. Sofer’s inaugural appointment to the cabinet will oversee the crucial Immigration brief. His party backs reviewing the Law of Return to cut off the non-Jewish grandchildren of Jewish people from their current rights to emigrate to Israel.”

Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power)

Itamar Ben-Gvir

National Security Minister

“He will have powers over law enforcement, including border police in the West Bank.”

“Despite the Kahanist “Jewish Power” part’s legal career, he is a convicted racist and has advocated for the expulsion of Arab-Israelis who “are not loyal” to the state.”

Amichai Eliyahu

Heritage Minister

“The MK was first elected in November. He is the grandson of ex-chief Sephardic Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu and son of leading religious-nationalist Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu.”

Yitzhak Wasserlauf

Minister for the Development of the Negev and the Galilee

“The 30-year-old is seen as a staunch supporter of Mr Ben-Gvir and will be the youngest minister in the new coalition.

United Torah Judaism

Meir Porush

Jerusalem and Tradition Minister

“The former Deputy Minister for Housing and Education will oversee the new department set to replace the Jerusalem and heritage ministry, which says it will: “strengthening Jewish tradition, deepening the knowledge and connection of all parts of Israeli society to tradition.”

Yitzhak Goldknopf

Housing and Construction Minister 

“After withdrawing from plans to be made the inaugural strictly-Orthodox security cabinet the newly elected MK will oversee housing and constriction.”

Noam

Avi Maoz

Deputy Minister within the Prime Minister’s Office

“The leader of the strictly-Orthodox party will oversee “Jewish national identity”, along with taking the responsibility for private educational programmes from the ministry for education.”

“He sparked outrage earlier this month after claiming forms of “liberal religion” are “darkness” and on Thursday he rejected claims he was anti-LGBT, arguing that he wished to oppose “LGBT-ism as an agenda and as a political movement.”

Non-party appointments

Ron Dermer

Strategic Affairs Minister 

“A long-running friend and ally of the incoming Prime Minister, Mr. Derner was a key player in the negotiation of the Abraham Accords whose CV also includes a seven-year stint as Ambassador to Washington.”