By, Anshel Pfeffer
1 min read
Ten days after swearing in his fourth government, Benjamin Netanyahu was already carrying out his first reshuffle on Monday.
The Likud's most popular young politician, Gilad Erdan, who had pinned his hopes on becoming foreign minister and was unsatisfied with the portfolio he was offered, had realised how difficult life was going to be as a backbencher in a coalition with a majority of one, and decided he wanted to be a minister after all.
The prime minister was happy to have him back: a disgruntled Mr Erdan is not someone he wants lurking on the sidelines. But all the jobs had already been given out. And Mr Erdan was not coming cheap.
The Strategic Affairs portfolio, which only last week had gone to Immigration Minister Zeev Elkin, was passed on to Mr Erdan, along with the title of Hasbara Affairs Minister, which was still waiting to be assigned.
But Mr Elkin, another Netanyahu loyalist, had been promised that he would have something extra. Luckily, there was another title to spare: Minister for Jerusalem Affairs. This infuriated yet another ally of the prime minister, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, who had been promised before the election that the Jerusalem brief would be handled from within the Prime Minister's Office. But the mayor has not got a vote in the Knesset so his anger is less of a threat to the coalition's stability.
This still leaves Mr Netanyahu with the problem of veteran minister Benny Begin, who may have to resign now that Likud has one more minister - Mr Erdan - than the coalition agreement allows them.
The horse-trading is perhaps unavoidable. Mr Netanyahu is both a victorious fourth-term premier but also at the mercy of every potential rebel in his party if he wants to push through any form of legislation. He has kept two ministries, foreign affairs and communications - but he had no choice except to give off choice ministries to coalition partners. That's why many of the senior Likud ministers, forced to make do with second-rate portfolios, were compensated with tiny slices of the defence and foreign ministries.
Meanwhile, on Monday, Mr Netanyahu appointed veteran foreign affairs adviser Dore Gold as director general of the Foreign Ministry. Mr Gold is a long-time confidant of Mr Netanyahu.