Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Tuesday evening in a stunning and dramatic move, showing that for Netanyahu, everything is political.
Although it has been an open secret for months that there is little trust between Netanyahu and Gallant, and while Netanyahu tried unsuccessfully to fire Gallant in the spring of 2023 – before October 7 – and again at the beginning of September, Tuesday’s timing is both staggering and instructive of the prime minister’s priorities.
The timing is staggering because it comes in the midst of a war on seven fronts, with the country on high alert that the Iranians might attack again and with hundreds of thousands of reservists and soldiers in harm’s way needing confidence in the political echelon sending them to battle.
This move does little to build that confidence. On the contrary, it tears it down.
The move is staggering because it sidelines, at a crucial time, the primary liaison with the Pentagon – the person Israel relies on to coordinate its response to a potential Iranian attack and whom the White House and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin know and trust.
It is equally staggering in that it puts in the position of defense minister, a man, Israel Katz, who will need to learn to navigate the mammoth defense and army bureaucracy while the country is fighting a war.
Why is the timing so instructive?
The timing shows that with the war raging, with Iran on the verge of a potential attack, and with the whole world holding its breath to see what happens in the US elections, the main thing on Netanyahu’s mind at this moment is his political survival.
While Netanyahu couched his dismissal of Gallant as a disagreement over the war, the timing is linked to politics and the haredi parties’ efforts to ensure that yeshiva students are not drafted.
Over the last 48 hours, it became clear to Netanyahu and his coalition partners that the daycare subsidies law – intended to remove any financial sanctions against ultra-Orthodox who do not serve in the army – was not going to pass, and that, as a result, the ultra-Orthodox parties, upon whose support the government rests, would either bring down the government or make it nearly impossible to function.
In the last couple of days, Gallant indicated he would vote against the law – one of several coalition MKs who signaled similar intention – and called on the IDF to issue 7,000 new draft notices to ultra-Orthodox men.
For Netanyahu – and his haredi coalition partners – this was a bridge too far.
Not only does Netanyahu have genuine differences of opinion with Gallant over the waging of the war – Gallant is more flexible regarding a deal to secure the return of the hostages – but this issue threatens Netanyahu’s political survival.
So the prime minister sacked Gallant, sending a clear message to the nation that, at a time when tens of thousands of reservists and soldiers are fighting and when the families of reservists are breaking under the burden of extended duty approaching 250 and more days since October 7, Netanyahu is willing to fire his defense minister in the middle of a war to ensure that haredi men do not have to serve.
And the reason he is doing that? To ensure his government survives.
It’s all political. Now the question is how the public, and those in his coalition who want to see haredi enlistment, will respond.
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