Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Thursday that Israel's transitional government does not need approval from the opposition or any legal authority to direct the IDF. His remarks were a response to letters from Gadi Eisenkot, chairman of the Yashar! party, urging restraint on security matters.
"We do not need approval from the opposition or from any legal official to instruct the IDF to carry out targeted operations in Gaza, defensive and offensive operations in Lebanon, maintain the security zone in Syria to protect the communities of the Golan, clear a terrorist neighborhood in Hebron, and continue offensive activity against terror in Judea and Samaria," Katz said.
The statement comes amid an unusual political situation. President Isaac Herzog has given Eisenkot the mandate to form a government, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Katz continue to run security policy as a transitional government.
Katz said that "against Iran, too, we demonstrated resolve and sound judgment, in full coordination with the IDF, and so it will be now as well, according to whatever is required." His comments followed a warning he issued at a memorial ceremony for Operation Kadesh, the 1956 Sinai Campaign. At that ceremony he cautioned that Iran is renewing its efforts to obtain nuclear weapons and that "we will not be able to accept these threats."
"Israel's security is not in transition and does not wait for the political processes taking place in parallel," Katz said. "There is one prime minister and one defense minister who direct the IDF, and one government that is responsible for decision-making on everything related to Israel's security and the protection of the residents of the State of Israel, under the existing and appropriate oversight, of course."
Katz was responding to an unusual letter Eisenkot sent to Netanyahu, calling on him to avoid dangerous security moves during the transitional period. "You are serving as prime minister of a transitional government that no longer enjoys the confidence of the Knesset," Eisenkot wrote. He stressed that the government must exercise extra caution in making security decisions.
The legal question of what a transitional government may do has grown more pressing ahead of a meeting of the security cabinet, which is scheduled to convene on Sunday, November 15, for the first time since early October. According to Kikar HaShabbat, senior figures in the so-called "change bloc" accuse Netanyahu of pushing for a unilateral operation against Iran, contrary to the position of US President Donald Trump.
Katz concluded: "So it has been, and so it will be in the future."
