Kara Set to Be Named Communications Minister

Likud MK Ayoub Kara is set to be named Communications Minister, officials in the Prime Minister’s Office said Sunday. PM Netanyahu is set to name his choice for the position in remarks to the Cabinet later Sunday. The government is set to approve the appointment, the officials said.

The naming of Kara to the position comes after PM Netanyahu named Tzachi Hanegbi as temporary minister in March, for a three-month period that is due to come to an end at the beginning of June. PM Netanyahu has offered the job to several current ministers, including Tourism Minister Yariv Levin, who would have had both jobs. Levin and the others turned the position down.

Until March, PM Netanyahu had been Communications Minister, a portfolio he was holding along with the Foreign Ministry, with the aim of bringing Zionist Camp into the government; those two portfolios were reserved for them. Good government groups filed a petition with the High Court demanding that a full-time Communications Minister be appointed.

The nomination of Kara comes as a bit of a surprise, because recent reports had said that PM Netanyahu had been negotiating with Hanegbi to remain on as “permanent temporary minister.” Kara, meanwhile, is abroad on Knesset business. In an interview with Army Radio, Hanegbi said that news of the negotiations came as a surprise to him, while Kara said he had no idea PM Netanyahu was planning to nominate him. Kara is not known to have a background in communications.