The Israeli government approved the appointment of a new foreign minister to replace Eli Cohen on Sunday as part of a pre-arranged reshuffle.
Israel Katz, the current energy minister, will exchange positions with Cohen in a ministerial rotation, pending parliamentary approval.
Cohen will retain his position as a member of the security cabinet, pending parliamentary approval, according to an official statement.
The reshuffle comes more than two months after the outbreak of hostilities between Israel and Hamas, triggered by the Islamist group’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7.
In a Sunday interview on Israeli radio, Cohen acknowledged “the government bears responsibility” for failing to anticipate the Hamas attack and suggested that an independent commission of inquiry should be established at the end of the war.
Cohen was appointed foreign minister last year in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government, and is widely considered the most right-wing in Israeli history.
He played an instrumental role in the normalization of relations between Israel and some Arab countries after decades of hostility.
In mid-2020, Israel announced the normalization of ties with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco as part of the “Abraham Accords.”
Miroslava Salazar, with AFP
