Photo Credit: Getty Images
Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu shows who's the boss after sacking his defence minister. After Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, the country’s biggest ever military humiliation, Gallant was initially fully behind the war in Gaza.
Along with Netanyahu, he faces possible war crimes charges at the International Criminal Court. Both men rejected the allegations made by the ICC's prosecutor when he sought warrants for them in May.
But in recent months as defence minister, Gallant argued that Israel's government should prioritise a hostage release deal with Hamas and end the war in Gaza. Netanyahu hasn’t listened, insisting that continued military pressure on Hamas was the best way to free the remaining Israelis being held.
Since the beginning of the year, Gallant had raised concerns about the lack of a post-war strategy. Again, it fell on deaf ears. He has pushed for a comprehensive investigation into the military, political, and intelligence failings that led to the 7 October attack.
The prime minister has been resistant, arguing now is not the time. Gallant was also unhappy at plans to continue to allow Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students to be exempt from serving in the military.
At a time of multiple wars, he said, the country couldn’t afford such luxuries.
Netanyahu, wary of the collapse of his coalition government which has been dependent on support from the ultra-Orthodox parties, paid no heed.
The new Defence Minister, Israel Katz, is more hawkish and much more in step with his boss’s thinking. Following his appointment, he vowed to “achieve the goals of the war”, including “the return of all hostages as the most important moral mission, the destruction of Hamas in Gaza, [and] the defeat of Hezbollah in Lebanon”.
But compared to Gallant, Katz has virtually no military experience. That will raise concerns here and abroad at a time when Israel is fighting two wars, in Gaza and in Lebanon, which risk further engulfing the wider Middle East.
On Tuesday night, as news broke that Gallant had been sacked, there were protests in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, but not that massive.
The cabinet has now lost the last remaining minister who was willing and able to confront Netanyahu, another likely reason Gallant was shown the door.
