Netanyahu thus named former Coalition Chairman Likud MK David Bitan as the agriculture minister. Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) was promoted to the role of Diaspora affairs minister, Likud MK Yifat Shasha-Biton was tapped for the role of labor, welfare, and social services minister, and Shas MK Yitzhak Cohen was appointed as construction and housing minister.

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Bitan's appointment is controversial as he is the subject of a bribery investigation.

If indicted, Bitan will have to step down and Netanyahu will have to appoint another minister instead.

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The purpose of the tour was to show the diplomats, who are stationed in Israel, the security reality along Israel's southern border.

On their first stop, the diplomats were shown a Hamas terror tunnel discovered by Israel in January under the Kerem Shalom border crossing – the only goods crossing into the coastal enclave.

Hotovely told the diplomats that the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza "is due to the internal Palestinian crisis, Israel is not responsible for it."

Discussing possible formulas for a peace agreement with the Palestinians, Hotovely said, "The two-state solution is no longer relevant."

Gaza Division Deputy Commander Col. Guy Bitton was on hand to brief the diplomats as well.

On Monday, Hotovely joined a chorus of criticism from right-wing politicians, leveled at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee for endorsing the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"U.S. Jewry should, in many senses, change the record about a lot of its basic assumptions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," she said.

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