’The Knesset approved far-right Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s permanent appointment as Minister of Defense on Monday evening, December 17. Following a lengthy debate, 59 Knesset members voted for confirmation; 56 were against.

“King Bibi” (Image: 61)

Throughout the plenum debate that preceded the vote, numerous members of the opposition criticized the appointment. “Today the prime minister will also become the defense minister, and he is also the minister of health, the minister of absorption and the foreign minister – so that’s four portfolios,” declared Hadash MK Ayman Odeh, head of the Joint List. “To these we need to add police investigations in Case 1000, Case 2000, Case 3000 and Case 4000; that makes eight portfolios,” he said, referring to the four police corruption investigations against Netanyahu. “That’s more than Louis XIV: ‘L’état c’est moi’ (‘The state, it is me’). I hope this situation will not continue much longer and the far-right government will fall.”

MK Dov Khenin (Hadash – Joint List) reacted to Netanyahu’s confirmation saying: “Ever since we’ve had a prime minister who is suspected of at least three bribery offenses, we’ve repeatedly quoted former opposition leader Netanyahu, who said that ‘a prime minister up to his neck in investigations has no public or moral mandate to run the affairs of the state.'”