Netanyahu dissolves war cabinet: Reports
Netanyahu has announced the end of Israel’s war cabinet, after ministers Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot resigned from it a week ago. The Israeli prime minister made the announcement during a meeting of the political-security cabinet last night, Israel’s Maariv and Ynet news sites reported.
However, he is expected to continue to hold “security consultations” on the war with key officials, including those who had stayed in the now-disbanded war cabinet, according to Ynet.
Netanyahu snubs Ben-Gvir, Smotrich by dissolving war cabinet
The war cabinet was set up in the days after October 7, essentially as a way of trying to show national unity.
Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, the former chief of staff of the Israeli military, joined. One of Gantz’s reasons for being willing to join at the time was to stop the far right from having any influence on the prosecution of the war.
Well, now Gantz and Eisenkot have withdrawn, essentially leaving only Netanyahu and the defence minister.
Netanyahu’s dissolved the war cabinet, Israeli media is reporting, because Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, those far-right ministers keeping Netanyahu in power, have been agitating to join it. Rather than let them into the cabinet, Netanyahu’s dissolved it.
The reporting is that Netanyahu will now use sort of a kitchen cabinet – speaking to some smaller advisers on what decisions to take regarding the continued prosecution of the war.
War is a racket.
Israel’s weapon exports hit all-time record last year, bringing in $13bn: Ministry
About 36 percent of the weapons export deals in 2023 were related to air defence systems, according to an annual report by Israel’s Defence Exports Department of the Defence Ministry.
This is compared to 19 percent the year before, according to Haaretz.
Other significant exports were radar and electronic warfare systems (11 percent), fire and launch equipment (11 percent), drones and avionics (9 percent) and ammunition and armaments (8 percent), the report said.
It also said that in the last five years, the scope of Israel’s defence exports has doubled and it has broken its export record for three years in a row.
In 2023, nearly half of defence exports (48 percent) were destined for countries in Asia and the Pacific, 35 percent were for Europe, 9 percent for North America, 4 percent for Latin America, 3 percent for the countries that are part of the Abraham Accords and 1 percent for countries in Africa, the report said.
