Lapid forces Liztman's ministerial integration

Yair Lapid thought he could scar eoff Yakov Litzman by appealing to the Supreme Court against Litzman's status as Deputy Minister of Health. Litzman, from the Haredi party UTJ, has historically refused to be a minister, and was given the status of Deputy Minister, with Netanyahu retaining the official title of Minister of Health (along with some other ministries in which he does similarly for other reasons).

Lapid thought that if the Supreme Court would rule that Litzman must become a minister, he would run, leave the government, resign, or whatnot, because it is against his beliefs. So Lapid appealed Litzman's status to the Supreme Court, claiming that the Ministry of Health is too important to be run by a deputy minister and needs a full time minister.

During the process, Litzman said a few times, whenever asked, that Lapid is fooling himself, and if forced to by the Supreme Court, he would not abandon his post but would become a minister. He has not had a reason to break the historical arrangement until now so he did not, but if a reason would come to be, such as a ruling from the Supreme Court, he would have no problem becoming a Minister.

Sure enough, the Supreme Court has ruled that Litzman can no longer serve as Deputy Minister of Health with no Minister above him, i.e. with Netanyahu retaining the title of Minister of Health.. and has 60 days to have a Minister appointed.

Instead of resigning or appointing someone else as Minister, Litzman will now take the post with the full title.

And Litzman does a good job at it, by everybody's count, so there should not be any opposition to this.

At the end of the day, it looks like Lapid is helping the Haredi community integrate into Israeli society and the Israeli workforce after all!

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