The news is reporting that MK Yaakov Litzman (UTJ) is working on making his way to back to the government, once again as a Deputy Minister. Same job, slightly less responsibility, mostly in name since he always takes these Deputy Minister jobs with all the authority as a minister...
It is slightly more difficult this time. In the past Netanyahu himself would take the position fo Minister above Litzman and give Litzman full authority over the ministry as Deputy Minister. This time Netanyahu cannot. When he was indicted for his alleged crimes the law forced him to give up all hsi ministerial positions (except for the Prime Minister position), so now Netanyahu cannot take the title of Housing Minister back, even if just in name. So he has to find another minister who is willing to add the title but also give Litzman all the authority. Technically, this minister is at risk for being blamed by history for whatever happens within the ministry, as he will always bear the title Minister of Housing, even though it will be Litzman making all the decisions and wielding all the power. This might be an impediment, but I expect it won't be too difficult to resolve.
I thought for a moment that this time he was serious. I now take back what I said about respecting him for putting his money where his mouth is. This is what we call a "combina" in Hebrew. He resigned to make a big deal then sneaks back in through the back door in a way that he can take all the credit and none of the blame for what he doesn't like. if he really had principles and if he really were serious, he would have left the government and stayed out, or else he could have saved us all this drama....
And he recently made such a dramatic statement of you will never hear the name Minister Litzman being called again - haha, so he is Deputy Minister Litzman instead. And even that is probably just temporary... We are going to rename him after Arnold Schwarzenegger's character in The Terminator series of movies who would say "I'll be back" ominously... Deputy Minister Yaakov I'll Be Back Litzman
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