The Israeli Cabinet voted on Sunday to appoint Likud Party member Israel Katz as the country’s foreign minister, replacing Eli Cohen.
Cohen, also a Likud member, will replace Katz as energy and infrastructure minister and continue to serve in the high-level Security Cabinet.
The full Knesset must now approve the appointments.
Katz, 68, the son of Romanian Holocaust survivors, first ran for Knesset in 1996 and previously served as Jerusalem’s top diplomat from February 2019 to May 2020. He has also held the Agriculture, Transport, Finance and Intelligence portfolios.
Katz has served as energy and infrastructure minister since the Netanyahu-led government came to power in December of last year.
In August, Katz became the current government’s first member to visit the United Arab Emirates.
The 51-year-old Cohen is an accountant by training who entered politics with the Kulanu Party in 2015. From 2017-2021, he served as economy minister and then as intelligence minister.
Cohen followed Kulanu into Likud when the parties merged in 2020.
