Mansour Barati- expert on Zionist regime issues                                   

First of all, to find out why there was a need to form the cabinet, we must refer to it before the start of the war on October 7, 2023. At the beginning of January 2023, when he came to power, Netanyahu’s cabinet unveiled the judicial reform plan. About a week later, on the 7th of January, public protests against judicial reforms began and continued for 39 weeks. In some places, we saw that 700,000 Israelis protested in different cities. This issue caused the formation of a huge division in the society and even the political, military, and security institutions of Israel. That is, he divided even the military and Mossad experts, government employees, and various government organizations into two categories, consisting of supporters and opponents of the reforms.

As a result of this crisis and polarization, conditions became more ready for external attack. Since the 7th of October, when the Operation Al-Aqsa Storm began, due to the extreme polarization that existed in the society and the Israeli political space between the statesmen, it was tough for the cabinet of the Israeli regime to create a consensus so that all spectrums were behind it and manage the war. For this reason, Netanyahu asked his opponents in the opposition to join the cabinet to manage the war.

Yair Lapid also proposed the formation of a war cabinet, but he did not join this cabinet. Only Benny Gantz’s coalition joined this cabinet. Gideon Sarar was also a member of Gantz’s coalition but left it later. Therefore, a cabinet was formed with six members, and Gantz stipulated that war management and making all war decisions should be the responsibility of this cabinet. Three of this 6-person cabinet members had the right to vote, and the other three were supervisory members. This cabinet was actually able to help Netanyahu overcome the critical situation at that time. Then, Netanyahu was not popular at all and was highly disliked in society. Even more than 85% of the people participating in some polls at the beginning of the war wanted Netanyahu to resign.

The prime minister of the Zionist regime reduced the amount of opposition to some extent by prolonging the war for seven or eight months. On the other hand, the credibility of Gantz as a voting member and Gadi Eysenkot as a supervisory member of the cabinet caused both a consensus between the society and the cabinet and differences between Netanyahu’s cabinet and the Israeli army on the way of war management and the future of Gaza after the war. These two people were soldiers and were the army’s chief commanders for two terms. Another effect of this war cabinet was that it limited the differences between the Western allies of the Israeli regime and Netanyahu’s cabinet Because these two moderate personalities were present in the war cabinet. But Gantz recently continued his presence in the cabinet conditional on taking several actions and making decisions on six issues.

One of the most important issues was to call the religious people into the army, considering their need for 300,000 more soldiers, and the other issue was to have a coherent and specific plan for the future of Gaza. Of course, the army and the cabinet of the Israeli regime did not present a specific and coherent plan. Therefore, because Netanyahu did not take Gantz’s terms seriously, he resigned, and Eisenkot left the war cabinet. With the departure of these two people, the war cabinet practically became meaningless because only people close to Netanyahu were present in it. As a result, after this resignation, Ben Guer, the Minister of Public Security, who has extreme right-wing tendencies and during this time felt that he was bypassed due to the existence of the war cabinet, requested to be a member of the war cabinet instead of Gantz. However, Netanyahu did not want to involve the extreme right in the war cabinet. Because there was a big gap between their decisions and Netanyahu’s regarding the war, and the problem of their choices was a lot, he announced that the war cabinet had been dissolved. But what effects will the dissolution of the cabinet have on Netanyahu’s performance?

During the last seven or eight months that the war cabinet was active, its first effect was to remove Netanyahu from the crisis and the corner of the ring to some extent, and according to some polls, the decrease in legitimacy and the big blow that they suffered at the beginning of the war was somewhat compensated. However, since there is no war cabinet, all the responsibilities will probably be on Netanyahu himself. It is even said that Netanyahu wants to form a secret cabinet for the war, which will include only his confidants. In this cabinet, only a few trusted and close people of Netanyahu will be present and advise him. It seems that people such as War Minister Yoav Galant and Netanyahu’s National Security Adviser Sakhi Hengbi will be present in this secret cabinet. Also, several of Netanyahu’s relatives who probably had military experience in the past will also appear in the cabinet.

But what are the most important consequences of the collapse of the war cabinet? First, Netanyahu will be pushed to the corner of the ring again, and all the responsibilities will be on his shoulders. Secondly, his differences with the extreme right wing will increase Because the extreme right wing wants to participate in the decisions related to the war. Still, Netanyahu is against it because of their differences. Since the war cabinet has been dissolved, this issue will anger the extreme right-wing more than before. The next issue is that the involvement of extreme rights in the decisions of the war will first make Netanyahu’s opponents more angry and radical. Secondly, it will increase the difference between the army and Netanyahu. Of course, this would have happened by itself in Gantz’s absence.

It should be noted that the Israeli regime army is not very willing to take responsibility for the future of Gaza and wants to leave, thereby presenting a schedule. Still, Netanyahu’s cabinet does not want such a thing. Another issue is the international relations of the Israeli regime, which will be significantly affected by this decision. At the same time, if Joe Biden remains in the White House, the situation will worsen for the Prime Minister of the Israeli regime, and Israel’s European allies will be more strongly at odds with Netanyahu and his cabinet.