Bismuth elected new Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee head

Yahoo

26-07-2025

Netanyahu announced that MK Hanoch Milwidsky will become 'temporary' Finance Committee head.
Likud MK Boaz Bismuth will become the next Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairperson, after the Likud voted for him in a closed meeting in the Knesset on Wednesday.
The vote passed 29-4 in favor of Bismuth and against outgoing chair MK Yuli Edelstein, two sources confirmed. The four votes in favor of Edelstein were by MKs Eli Dalal, Shalom Danino, David Bitan, and Edelstein himself.
When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced earlier on Wednesday that he would support Bismuth's leading contender, MK Hanoch Milwidsky, for the position of temporary Finance Committee chairperson, he paved the way for Bismuth's election, whereby the contest effectively ended.
Following Netanyahu's announcement, the other contenders in the party, MKs Eliyahu Revivo, Avichay Boaron, Dalal, and Nissim Vaturi, withdrew their candidacy.
Milwidsky's new position is temporary because it will be returned to United Torah Judaism MK Moshe Gafni in the event that Gafni rejoins the coalition. UTJ left the government and coalition on July 14 after negotiations between Edelstein and haredi (ultra-Orthodox) representatives over a haredi IDF conscription bill fell through. Edelstein refused to proceed with a law proposal that would likely exempt a large majority of haredi men from IDF service.
Bismuth was reportedly the preferred choice by some of the haredi parties. Two parties, Degel Hatorah and Shas, publicly denied involvement in the appointment.
Votes in the party's Knesset faction
Five Likud MKs filed a request on Tuesday for the vote to be a secret one instead of an open one. The Likud's constitution states that 10% of the voting body may demand a secret ballot, and the five members exceeded this threshold.
However, the Likud's legal adviser, Avi Halevy, ruled that the vote would be open, arguing that the relevant article in the party's constitution did not apply to votes in the party's Knesset faction. This was significant, as Edelstein would likely have received more support if MKs could do so discreetly.
Some 41 MKs and ministers from the party were eligible to vote. In addition to the 29-4 vote, two MKs, Dan Illouz and Milwidsky, abstained. The remaining six votes were either not cast or the voters did not participate in the ballot.
Several family members of the hostages stood alongside reporters near the Likud's meeting place. In a statement following the vote, Yael Adar, the mother of Tamir Adar, who was killed on October 7 and whose body is being held by Hamas in Gaza, called for a hostage deal that will end the war and bring back all hostages in one wave.
The family members also condemned Netanyahu for passing by them in a hallway without acknowledging them. They criticized the fact that the Likud convened to appoint a new committee head, but not to discuss the hostages.
Even if Bismuth takes over as the defense panel's chair and would be willing to proceed with a lenient haredi conscription bill, at least seven MKs from the coalition would not support it, according to a source from the United Right party. The coalition might thus struggle to muster a majority.
Bismuth said in a statement following the vote that he viewed the role as a 'paramount national mission.'
'The Torah brought me here and the army keeps me here,' Bismuth said. 'The conscription law lives in my home – my daughter is a soldier with a red beret, and my son wears tzitzit and a kippah and studies in yeshiva. I'm proud of them both. Army and Torah – this combination is so beautiful together.'
'It's possible to integrate the two,' he continued, 'as one hand holds the other. Each strengthens the other. The conscription law is a national matter, not a political one. All of the people of Israel, for the sake of all of the people of Israel,' Bismuth said.
His election drew criticism from the opposition.
Opposition leader MK Yair Lapid said in a statement that this is 'a black day for the State of Israel and the people of Israel. Bismuth was chosen to promote draft evasion, and this is a slap in the face to the soldiers, reservists, and their families. It is also a black day for the Likud, which has become a branch of the haredim and the draft evaders.'
The leader of the opposition's Blue and White party, MK Benny Gantz, said in a video statement, 'Just moments ago, Likud members decided to abandon our heroic fighters and turn a blind eye to the challenges and security interests of the State of Israel for political gain. In the midst of a war, the Likud members, led by Netanyahu, chose to turn one of the most important committees in the Knesset into mere window dressing, with one goal: to exempt the haredim from military service.'
Gantz continued, 'To all the members of the Likud in the Knesset, I say today: you've lost touch with the people, and you've lost your way. This is not [former prime minister Menachem] Begin's Likud. This is absolutely not the legacy of [Ze'ev] Jabotinsky.'
'Anyone who thinks the fight is over, that the draft exemption law will pass – they're mistaken,' he said. 'We will continue to fight; we won't give up. Those who serve will not surrender to the corrupt. It will take as long as it takes.'
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