Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has chosen Moshe Yaalon, a right-wing former armed forces chief, to be Israel's defence minister, saying his experience was needed to tackle challenges in a turbulent Middle East.
Mr Yaalon, 62, a member of Mr Netanyahu's Likud party, spent the past four years in his inner circle of ministers, publicly backing his reluctance to give up the occupied West Bank and make way for a Palestinian state.
The former general has also supported the premier's threats to attack Iranian nuclear sites, although, behind closed doors, officials say he has urged Mr Netanyahu to give US-led diplomatic pressure on Tehran more time.
Mr Yaalon has argued that with the rise of Hamas in the other Palestinian territory of Gaza, and of kindred Islamists in neighbouring Egypt and Syria, the Jewish state is at risk and must focus on defence before diplomacy.
"At such a decisive time for the security of the State of Israel, when the region all around us is stormy, it is important to have a man who is rich in experience, like Moshe Yaalon, in this post," Mr Netanyahu said in a statement.
He nominated Mr Yaalon and other cabinet ministers two days after agreements were signed to form a new coalition government, which is expected to take office today.
Danny Danon, a Likud lawmaker considered especially hawkish on the Palestinians, got the deputy defence portfolio.
In a Facebook statement, Danon said he would "preserve the values of the nationalist camp", a likely reference to Israel's West Bank settlements, which the defence ministry oversees.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article