Knesset
© CC BY 2.0 / James EmeryKnesset
Israel's government has reportedly moved to alter a law that would allow the prime minister to declare war without the backing of the majority of the cabinet.

The Israeli Security Cabinet has decided to annul a law that was approved by the parliament last month and which effectively grants the country's prime minister and defense minister the authority to declare war without the support of other ministers or legislators, Haaretz reports.

According to the newspaper, the original draft of the law, which is about to be "promoted anew" by the government, allows the cabinet to declare war or authorize any significant military action even if some of the cabinet's members are absent when the decision is being made.

This provision has led some members of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee to criticize the law, arguing that it still has loopholes that may allow the prime minister to start a war all by himself.

"We thought about a situation when the prime minister announces that in four minutes he's calling a cabinet meeting- so that none of the ministers can make it in time- and that way he can make the decision [to go to war] on his own," one committee member told Haaretz.

An Israeli minister, cited by the newspaper, pointed out that even the existing Israeli legislation, which names the government as the sole authority capable of declaring war, does not define the exact number of ministers needed to make such decision.

"This is an imagined and extreme scenario where the prime minister takes upon himself the right to make such a dramatic call alone. There's a limit to the amount of ludicrous scenarios you can toss around," he insisted.