The vote followed a compromise reached between Netanyahu and Naftali Bennett of the Jewish Home party, who conditioned his joining the coalition on greater involvement by Cabinet ministers in security decisions.
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The Israeli parliament is expected to vote on Lieberman’s appointment and the addition of his party to the government later on Monday.
After 2015 parliamentary elections, Lieberman, a right-wing politician, withdrew from the coalition with the Likud party led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and resigned from his foreign minister position.
On Monday Netanyahu said “we will continue with a responsible and assertive security policy… and at the same time, will look for paths to peace, especially through regional developments, which we not only recognise but are also involved in”.
Yaalon said his resignation was over “growing extremism” within Likud under Netanyahu.
The United States has said the new coalition raises “legitimate questions” about the commitment of Netanyahu’s government to a two-state solution with the Palestinians.
Lieberman is a West Bank settler.
The religious nationalist Jewish Home holds eight seats, enough to block Netanyahu’s proposed new line-up. Earlier in the day yesterday, Netanyahu had rejected the compromise.
Bennett said the prime minister and defense minister did not inform other ministers of important military considerations, such as Hamas’ possession of terror tunnels ahead of the 2014 Gaza war.
Parliament approved the appointment after two weeks of political upheaval in which Netanyahu dumped Moshe Ya’alon as defense minister and embarrassed opposition chief Isaac Herzog by retracting an offer to have him steer future Israeli peacemaking as foreign minister.
A proposal on security cabinet reform by Health Minister Yaakov Litzman was accepted by both Netanyahu and Bennett late Sunday night, effectively ending the crisis and paving the way for paving the way the cabinet’s approval of Lieberman as defense minister. In another ministerial appointment, Tzachi Hanegbi of Likud was named a minister without portfolio in the Prime Minister’s Office.
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Bennett is widely seen as aspiring to replace Netanyahu, whose Likud party is now the largest in parliament.
