Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu has fired Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant.
Netanyahu said that there have been too many gaps between him and Gallant over the management of Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon.
This comes less than 24 hours after Gallant approved the Israeli army’s recommendation to send out 7,000 more draft orders to ultra-Orthodox men.
The issue of drafting ultra-Orthodox men has been a sticking point between Gallant and Netanyahu, whose coalition is dependent on a right-wing bloc.
In the statement confirming Gallant’s dismissal, Netanyahu said that there is a need for complete trust between him and the Defence Minister. “The crisis of trust that occurred between me and the Defence Minister did not make it possible to continue managing the war in this manner,” he stated.
Netanyahu said that he had made attempts to bridge the differences.
“But they only grew wider. These divisions even reached public knowledge in an unusual manner and, worse, became known to our enemies, who took pleasure in them and derived substantial benefit from them.
“The growing breach of trust between the Defence Minister and me has become public, preventing the normal continuation of our campaign management.”
Benjamin Netanyahu
He expressed confidence that “this step will make the cabinet more harmonious.”
Divisions between Netanyahu and Gallant have been ongoing during the course of Israel’s war on Gaza.
In May this year, Gallant said Israel should not be involved in ruling Gaza once the fighting ends. Netanyahu responded saying he was not “prepared to exchange Hamastan for Fatahstan.”
Last month, Gallant cancelled a visit to the US Pentagon as Israeli media reported Netanyahu wanted first to speak with President Joe Biden and said Gallant’s trip to the US was not approved.
In a post on X, immediately after news broke out of his ouster, Gallant wrote, “The security of the State of Israel was and will always remain my life’s mission.”
Netanyahu named Foreign Minister Israel Katz as the country’s new Defence Minister while appointing Gideon Saar in Katz’s former position.
Netanyahu fired Gallant once before in March 2023, months before Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the current conflict.
Biden administration officials expressed concern to Netanyahu over his decision at the time.
The move then was spurred by Gallant’s criticism of the Netanyahu government’s contentious plan to overhaul the judiciary.
Netanyahu reversed the decision weeks later.
Protests In Israel Against Gallant’s Dismissal
According to Israeli media reports, families of captives still held in Gaza protested Defence Minister Yoav Gallant’s dismissal.
The report said that the dismissal was a “direct continuation of the efforts to torpedo the abductee deal.”
It added that the protesters stated that “we demand the incoming Defence Minister to express an explicit commitment to the end of the war and to carry out a comprehensive deal for the immediate return of all the abductees.”
Yossi Beilin, Isreal’s former Justice Minister, told a news agency that Netanyahu’s firing of the Defence Minister is “long overdue.”
“Netanyahu wanted to fire his Defence Minister [for a long time], he did it almost a year ago and people took to the streets and demonstrated against this … and the Prime Minister reneged on this and took him back.
“I think that for Netanyahu, the whole issue of portfolios in the cabinet … is totally secondary. He is referring to the portfolios as kind of a prize for participating in his coalition.”
Yossi Beilin
Beilin explained that this move, the dismissal of Gallant, is not a new precedent, but within the framework of Netayahu’s attempt to centralise his power over the government.
He said that Netanyahu believes that he is not only the Prime Minister, but the “Minister in every portfolio, so that eventually, it will be [solely] his decision,” to hire and fire whoever he wants.
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