The Likud and the Otzma Yehudit Party have agreed that the latter will return to the government today, and its ministers will resume their positions in it, the two parties said in a joint statement on Tuesday.
The announcement came after Israel renewed its strikes on Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad targets in the Gaza Strip.
Otzma Yehudit chairman Itamar Ben-Gvir will return to his prior position as national security minister, the party’s number two Yitzhak Wasserlauf will return to his position as the development of the Negev and Galilee and national resilience minister, and Amichai Eliyahu will return as the heritage minister.
All three positions were originally passed over to Tourism Minister Haim Katz (Likud) for “safekeeping” in case Otzma Yehudit returned to the government.
With six MKs from Otzma Yehudit returning to the governing coalition overall, this means that the government now has a sizable majority to pass the 2025 state budget, without which it would have fallen.
The government previously had a narrow majority since some haredi MKs pledged to vote against the budget due to its failure to enact legislation to exempt a large number of yeshiva students from being drafted into the military.
Early signs of goodwill
Already on Monday, the government reached agreements with Ben-Gvir by which Otzma Yehudit will abstain regarding the Economics Arrangements Bill, which is set to reach the Knesset plenum on Wednesday. This bill accompanies the national budget every year and includes related legal amendments that are necessary for the budget to be carried out in full.
Ben-Gvir agreed to abstain as a “goodwill gesture” over the prime minister’s decision to fire both Shin Bet head Ronen Bar and Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara. It remains to be seen whether Ben-Gvir conditioned his return to the government on the final dismissal of both figures.
His criticism of Baharav-Miara intensified after the attorney-general wrote to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in January that he would need to receive legal consultation in order to reappoint Ben-Gvir as the national security minister due to a series of alleged improper interventions into operational police work.
Baharav-Miara’s letter came as part of an ongoing procedure in the High Court of Justice following four petitions that were submitted against Netanyahu in September, demanding that he fire Ben-Gvir over the “extreme unreasonableness” of his conduct.
The procedure was halted after Ben-Gvir departed from the government, but Baharav-Miara indicated at the time that it would likely resume if Netanyahu attempted to reappoint him.
Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi (Likud) wrote on X/Twitter on Tuesday that the attorney-general’s opinion was “non-obligatory and did not interest anyone, especially not a government elected by the people.”
As attorney-general, Baharav-Miara is responsible for interpreting the law on behalf of the government, and many High Court rulings have determined that her interpretation of the law is binding.
Baharav-Miara wrote in a short statement later on Tuesday evening that the prime minister could not lawfully appoint Ben-Gvir as national security minister at this time.