- Opposition leader Lapid says Netanyahu’s decision to fire Gallant mid-war is ‘act of madness’
- US caught off-guard by firing of Gallant on Election Day, defense minister was main conduit to Biden administration
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu handed Defense Minister Yoav Gallant the letter officially firing him by hand during a short meeting at 8 p.m. in the premier’s office, the Prime Minister’s Office tells The Times of Israel.
After the brief interaction, Netanyahu left the room and recorded the video announcing the firing, according to Channel 12.
The one-sentence letter said Gallant’s term will end in 48 hours.
This is just as it has emerged that Prime Minister Netanyahu is also planning to fire IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and Shin Bet head Ronen Bar, the Walla news site reports, citing sources close to the prime minister.
The report comes after Netanyahu fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
While Netanyahu has the sole authority to replace Bar, the defense minister is responsible for firing or nominating an IDF chief of staff.
Incoming defense minister Israel Katz is widely seen as being willing to do Netanyahu’s bidding.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s decision to fire the Defense Minister on the day of the US presidential election indicates that he was trying to avoid blowback from the Biden administration whose focus is currently elsewhere, a US official tells The Times of Israel.
The Biden administration was caught off guard by the decision and is still working to gather more information, the US official says.
When Netanyahu fired Gallant for the first time in March 2023 over the defense minister’s opposition to the premier’s effort to overhaul the country’s judiciary, the White House expressed its “deep concern,” adding that the political upheaval underscored the need for compromise between the various factions in the Knesset on the issue of legal reform.
Netanyahu ended up walking back his decision to fire Gallant following massive public opposition to the move.
The White House has yet to formally weigh in on the latest firing, which was announced an hour ago. While State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller would likely have been asked to comment on Gallant’s ouster during his daily press briefing, he is not holding one today.
Given that Washington’s criticism of Gallant’s first firing focused on the importance of Netanyahu maintaining a broad consensus while implementing far-reaching policies, that could well be the same line that the Biden administration uses this time around, as Netanyahu seeks to continue prosecuting the war in Gaza with a cabinet that has lost its most moderate voice in Gallant and is now dominated by much more hawkish members who have largely rejected the concessions proposed in exchange for a hostage deal.
Gallant was the cabinet member who maintained the most frequent contact with a senior Biden administration official, holding nearly 100 calls with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin since the beginning of the war.
While there were periodic disagreements, Biden officials saw Gallant as a voice of reason within the Israeli government who understood that Israel’s continued prosecution of its war against Hamas was dependent on it being able to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians.
And at home, Netanyahu’s decision to replace Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in the middle of a war “is an act of madness,” Opposition Leader Yair Lapid tweets, calling for Israelis to protest the high-level cabinet shakeup.
“Netanyahu is selling out Israel’s security and the IDF’s fighters for [his own] disgraceful political survival. The ultra-right-wing government prefers the [draft] dodgers over the those who serve,” Lapid accuses — calling on his party’s supporters and “all Zionist patriots to take to the streets tonight in protest.”
@The Times of Israel