Israeli cabinet

The Israeli cabinet is the collective executive government of Israel, comprising the Prime Minister and ministers approved by the Knesset. Israel operates a parliamentary system in which the cabinet (Memshala) requires a confidence vote and is collectively accountable to the Knesset. For major security and military decisions, the cabinet convenes in a restricted security cabinet format (the Kabinet), typically comprising the Prime Minister, Defence Minister, Foreign Minister, Strategic Affairs Minister, and several designated senior ministers. The security cabinet holds formal authority over military operations; the full cabinet ratifies broader policy.

Benjamin Netanyahu's government, sworn in December 2022, is a right-wing Coalition including Likud, Otzma Yehudit (Itamar Ben Gvir), Religious Zionism (Bezalel Smotrich), Shas, and United Torah Judaism. The Coalition has been under continuous legal and political pressure since October 2023, with Netanyahu himself on trial for corruption and Coalition partners holding outsized leverage over security decisions. National Security Minister Ben Gvir publicly demanded 'all of Lebanon must burn' after a 19 June Hezbollah attack killed four Israeli soldiers, in open defiance of the US-brokered ceasefire framework.

The security cabinet became the focal point of Israel's fraught relationship with the Islamabad MOU from mid-June 2026. Netanyahu convened the cabinet on the evening of 13 June as the US-Iran framework emerged, and he subsequently launched diplomatic efforts, enlisting former strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer to engage Washington, after reports surfaced that a new Lebanon deconfliction mechanism arising from the MOU could limit Israel's freedom of action in southern Lebanon. The security cabinet has authorised ongoing strikes despite the 16 April 2026 Ceasefire; Israeli forces killed at least 27 Lebanese around 23 June while fifth-round Lebanon talks at the State Department on 23-24 June produced no joint statement. Coalition dynamics (particularly FAR-right partners who oppose any Lebanon restraint) have structurally constrained the cabinet's ability to accept Washington's demand for an IDF withdrawal south of the Litani River, which Iran has set as a precondition for opening nuclear sub-talks.