Today, former Deputy Minister of Health Yaakov Litzman was appointed to the position of Minister of Health to fill the vacancy left by Netanyahu's resignation. Netanyahu's resignation caused Litzman to lose his position as well, as you cannot have a Deputy Minister with out a Minister. Appointing someone else as Minister of Health and leaving Litzman in the Deputy Minister position would be meaningless as he would have no powers with a real minister over him, unlike when PM Netanyahu held the position and gave DM Litzman full authority. So, after the Moetzes of Agudat Yisrael approved Litzman taking the full ministerial position recently, today Netanyahu formally appointed him.
What makes this interesting, even though it is only a caretaker government and an extremely temporary position until elections, Litzman had made history by taking the full ministerial position, after decades of UTJ politicians refusing such positions so as not to share in responsibility for government decisions that go against halacha. After serving as Health Minister for a while, Litzman resigned (about two years ago) because he realized the old problem never really went away and with increasing chilul shabbos and other issues supported by the government, he felt he could not bear that responsibility. He was then reappointed as Deputy Minister and has since served in that capacity of full responsibility but not in official appearances.
And now, with the threat of him losing his position and responsibility for the health ministry imminent, the powers that be decided it was more important he keep that appointment despite their historic position, and the reaffirmed position from two years ago, that no job is important enough to be worth sharing responsibility for chilul shabbos and other anti-halachic decisions of the government.
Makes one wonder what changed that now it is allowed again...
(and all this without even mentioning the indictment Litzman himself is supposedly about to be served in the Leifer case for obstructing justice and whatever other charges there might be)
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What changed? Nothing. Pragmatism and power always trump integrity, for some people (והמבין יבין). It's only now that we don't have a government in which a do-nothing MoH can be appointed, it's necessary for Litzman to take control in name, as well as in fact.
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