Netanyahu Dissolves Israel’s War Cabinet

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the dissolution of Israel’s war cabinet, diplomatic efforts between Russia and North Korea, and migrant deaths in the Mediterranean Sea.

Bibi’s Fracturing Coalition

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dissolved his country’s war cabinet on Monday, transferring decision-making powers back to Israel’s main 14-person security cabinet. The announcement comes a little more than a week after opposition leader Benny Gantz resigned from the war cabinet, citing Netanyahu’s failure to create a postwar plan for Gaza.

“Netanyahu prevents us from moving forward to a real victory,” Gantz said this month, adding that “fateful strategic decisions are met with hesitancy and procrastination due to political considerations.”

Israel’s war cabinet was created five days after Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Netanyahu, Gantz, and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant served as full members, with Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, Knesset member Gadi Eisenkot, and Shas party leader Aryeh Deri acting as observers. Eisenkot also resigned prior to the body’s dissolution.

Netanyahu said on Monday that he will use Israel’s security cabinet for wartime decisions moving forward and will turn to a smaller forum that he dubbed a “kitchen cabinet” for sensitive matters. Gallant, Dermer, Deri, and National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi will serve on the smaller, informal council.

By dismantling the war cabinet, Netanyahu appears to be trying to prevent far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich from gaining power without angering Netanyahu’s more right-wing allies. This is “another move by Netanyahu to keep the authority close to himself,” former Israeli National Security Advisor Eyal Hulata told Foreign Policy’s Amy Mackinnon.

Ben-Gvir and Smotrich both serve on the country’s 14-person security cabinet, but Netanyahu has been hesitant to include them in war cabinet proceedings, fearing that their involvement could further strain relations with the United States. Ben-Gvir and Smotrich have previously made incendiary remarks about Palestinians and have advocated for extremist policies regarding Israel’s control of Gaza.

Meanwhile, Gantz continues to call for new elections as soon as September, ahead of the one-year anniversary of the Israel-Hamas war. “Israeli society needs to renew its contract with its leadership,” Gantz said in April. As of last Friday, Gantz was polling at 42 percent—more than Netanyahu’s 34 percent, according to Maariv, a Tel Aviv-based newspaper .

Tens of thousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv on Saturday to protest Netanyahu’s governing coalition and call for the release of Hamas-held hostages. That same day, the Israeli military reportedly began a “tactical pause of military activity” in southern Gaza, stretching from the vital Kerem Shalom crossing to the European Hospital near Khan Younis.

The daily, 11-hour pauses will continue until further notice, aiming to allow more humanitarian aid into the embattled enclave. Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir denounced the plan on Monday, and the Israeli military clarified on Sunday that these actions are not a cease-fire.

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The World This Week

Tuesday, June 18: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken hosts NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang concludes a four-day trip to Australia.

Wednesday, June 19: French President Emmanuel Macron hosts Argentine President Javier Milei.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hosts Stoltenberg.

Brazil’s central bank determines its interest rate.

Putin travels to Vietnam for a two-day visit.

Thursday, June 20: Indonesia’s central bank determines its interest rate.

Friday, June 21: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz hosts Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Sunday, June 23: Scholz hosts Milei.

Monday, June 24: The Council of Europe begins its summer parliamentary session.

The deadline expires for Israel to deliver a report to the International Court of Justice on its efforts to adhere to the court’s provisional measures.

What We’re Following

Putin flies to Pyongyang. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Monday that he will travel to North Korea on Tuesday to visit leader Kim Jong Un. This is Putin’s second face-to-face meeting with Kim in nine months and his first visit to North Korea since 2000. The leaders are expected to deepen their bilateral military ties at a time when Pyongyang is seeking greater missile development and Moscow is increasingly isolated on the global stage.

Meanwhile, nearly 80 countries culminated a Russia-Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland on Sunday by demanding that Ukraine’s “territorial integrity” be the basis for any future peace negotiations. The joint communique rejected Putin’s most recent demand that Kyiv surrender more than one-fifth of its internationally recognized territory to Russia. Putin was not invited to the conference.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg told the Telegraph on Monday that the alliance is in talks to place more nuclear weapons on standby to counter rising global threats, particularly from Russia. “NATO’s aim is, of course, a world without nuclear weapons,” Stoltenberg said, but “a world where Russia, China and North Korea have nuclear weapons, and NATO does not, is a more dangerous world.” The Kremlin called Stoltenberg’s remarks an “escalation of tension.”

Migrant deaths. At least 11 migrants were killed and dozens more injured in two separate shipwrecks off Italy’s coast in the Mediterranean Sea on Monday. Rescuers discovered 10 drowned victims on the lower deck of a wooden boat and saved 51 others aboard a sinking wooden vessel, which authorities believe came from Tunisia. Nearly 60 migrants were also reported missing on Monday following the shipwreck of a sailboat reportedly coming from Turkey. A dozen survivors of that wreck have been rescued and taken to a port in southern Italy, although one person has since died.

More than 3,000 migrants died while trying to cross the Mediterranean last year, according to the International Organization for Migration. On Monday, Greek authorities denied reports that its coast guard has forced migrants back to sea. The BBC reported that 43 migrants have drowned in 15 incidents off Greece’s eastern Aegean Sea islands between 2020 and 2023, including nine people who were deliberately thrown into the water.

Zuma takes on the ANC. South Africa’s uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) party announced on Sunday that it will join an opposition alliance to counter the coalition formed by the African National Congress (ANC) and the Democratic Alliance parties. MK’s so-called Progressive Caucus will also include the Marxist Economic Freedom Fighters and the center-left United Democratic Movement.

Former South African President Jacob Zuma leads the MK party, which took third place in general elections last month and has since vowed to challenge South Africa’s first coalition-led government since the end of apartheid in 1994. “The ex-president’s party is openly hostile to democracy, but excluding it after a strong election showing could lead to violence,” journalist Richard Pithouse argued in Foreign Policy.

On Friday, MK members boycotted the National Assembly’s first session over allegations of election-rigging. South Africa’s top court has dismissed the claims as without merit. Incumbent President Cyril Ramaphosa, who heads the ANC, will be sworn in for his second term on Wednesday.

Odds and Ends

One Nintendo enthusiast has tried to game the global system. Last week, Chinese customs authorities caught a woman trying to smuggle 350 Nintendo Switch cartridges into Shenzhen’s Liantang Port in her bra. Her “look and attitude were not innocent,” the officials said, with one noting that her chest did not appear proportional to her body. Apparently, the method wasn’t the cheat code she thought it would be.