Israel’s former Foreign Minister Israel Katz has been appointed Defense Minister after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Yoav Galant from the post.
Netanyahu said he no longer has confidence in Israel’s gallant management of military operations, including the ongoing war in Gaza and Lebanon.
Below are some facts about Katz:
* Born in 1955 in the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon, Katz was drafted into the army in 1973 and served as a paratrooper, leaving the service in 1977. He has not held any senior military command position, unlike his predecessor Gallant, who had been a general before becoming defense minister in 2022.
* Katz, a member of Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party, has been a member of the Knesset (parliament) since 1998. In the Knesset, he served on several committees, including committees covering foreign affairs, defense and justice.
* He has held several ministerial portfolios in the last two decades, including agriculture, transport, intelligence, finance and energy portfolios. He was appointed Foreign Minister in 2019.
* As foreign minister, Katz in October declared Antonio Guterres persona non grata after he said the UN secretary general had failed to “unequivocally” condemn Iran’s missile attack on Israel and which he The conduct was described as anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli.
* Also in October, he ordered his ministry to launch legal proceedings against French President Emmanuel Macron after Paris banned Israeli companies from participating in an upcoming military naval trade show.
* Katz has been a low-profile figure in Israel-US talks during US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s 11 visits to Israel since October 7, 2023. The top US diplomat has held only a few meetings with Katz, while Blinken met with Gallant regularly. ,
* Katz studied as an undergraduate and graduate student at the Hebrew University of Israel. He is married with two children.
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