The cabinet on Sunday approved Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s appointment of former defense minister Amir Peretz as head of Israel Aircraft Industries. This approval comes despite the government appointments committee ruling him out due to a lack of experience in the business.
Likud MK Shlomo Karhi called out what he saw as the government’s hypocrisy.
“Those Likudnikim are a disgrace. Look how they attack the gatekeepers... oh wait, it’s on the Left so it’s OK,” he wrote on Twitter.
The Movement for the Quality of Government lambasted the decision.
“The government has something that should not be done and bypassed the professionals while completely trampling their role,” the movement said. The movement called the appointment of allies a poisoning of the political system and denounced the government for not being a “change government.”
Transportation Minister Merav Michaeli abstained from the vote.
As the head of Peretz’s former party, Michaeli said she reviewed the appointments committee’s decision and thought Peretz was strongly connected to Defense Minister Benny Gantz and therefore had a strong conflict of interest.
She accepted the committee’s assertion that one to three years were needed in order for the political ties between Gantz and Peretz to cool off.
Ministers Tamar Zandberg and Nitzan Horowitz of Meretz also abstained.