Netanyahu fires Defense Minister Gallant

JTA – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, saying he no longer trusted him, a drastic step while Israel is fighting on multiple fronts, faces domestic political turmoil, and is contending with regional and global uncertainty.

The decision, the second time in as many years that Netanyahu has announced Gallant’s termination, comes as Iran is threatening to strike Israel in response to a previous round of bombing. It also comes amid a growing investigation into leaks of classified material from a Netanyahu aide, in which the prime minister’s office has denied participating in any leak and suggested that the probe was “arbitrary”.

Gallant’s firing was announced on Election Day in the United States (US), whose result will determine the next four years of the US-Israel relationship. Gallant was one of the most trusted Israeli government officials in Washington.

In a statement Netanyahu delivered as a video message in Hebrew, he said he could no longer work with Gallant due to irreconcilable differences over the war.

“In the midst of war, more than ever, complete trust is required between the prime minister and the defense minister,” the statement said. “Unfortunately, even though such trust was present during the first months of the military campaign and we had a very productive co-operation during the past several months, this trust between myself and the defense minister has begun to crack. Defense Minister Gallant and I had substantial disagreements on the management of the military campaign, disagreements which were accompanied by public statements and actions that contravened the decisions of the government and the security cabinet.

“I have made multiple attempts to resolve these disagreements,” the statement read, “but they became increasingly wider. They were also brought to the knowledge of the public in an inappropriate manner, and what’s even worse, they have reached the knowledge of the enemy. Our enemies have taken great delight in these disagreements, and have derived much benefit from them.”

Netanyahu didn’t detail those disagreements, but Gallant differed publicly with Netanyahu on a number of issues, including US-Israel relations; the need for a detailed postwar plan in Gaza; and Netanyahu’s efforts to preserve haredi Orthodox men’s exemption from the military draft.

Netanyahu said he was replacing Gallant with the foreign minister, Israel Katz. Gideon Saar, a politician who has vacillated between being Netanyahu’s ally and rival, will become the new foreign minister.

Protesters took to the streets almost as soon as Netanyahu made the announcement. Netanyahu last tried to fire Gallant in March 2023, when the defense minister publicly voiced opposition to the government’s effort to weaken the judiciary. Protests forced Netanyahu to reverse that decision.

Gallant is the minister most trusted by the Biden administration as it has become increasingly frustrated with Netanyahu and his conduct of the war in Gaza. Veteran investigative journalist Bob Woodward said recently that Biden feels that “18 of the 19 people who work for Netanyahu are liars”. He didn’t specify who the 19th person was, though Gallant has been in almost daily contact with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

That relationship is especially sensitive at this moment, when Iran is threatening to counterattack Israel for its retaliatory strikes last month on Iranian military bases. Netanyahu, at Biden’s request, held back from striking Iranian oil and nuclear sites.

Netanyahu’s firing of Gallant came just minutes after he released a statement saying that there had been a “flood of criminal leaks” from the security cabinet, the Israeli government’s top decision-making body on matters of war, while complaining that police were selectively investigating his office.

That investigation, which has dominated Israeli headlines, centres on a staffer in the prime minister’s office named Eliezer Feldstein, who is suspected of working with people in the security establishment to leak and alter top-secret documents obtained from Hamas. The leaks of purported information, which were published in Bild, a German publication, and in the London-based Jewish Chronicle, reinforced Netanyahu’s claims at a time when he was reportedly obstructing progress toward a ceasefire deal with Hamas that would have resulted in the group releasing Israeli hostages.