By Daanyaal Matthews
Yoav Gallant has been fired as the Defence Minister of Israel by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu has cited a strained relationship as the rationale behind the retrenchment, with the Israeli Prime Minister stating that the trust between the two had become ‘damaged’. This damaged relationship has led to protest action in Tel Aviv, with demonstrators denouncing their prime ministers’ actions.
The tenuous relationship between Netanyahu and Gallant can be traced back to disagreements in strategy in Gaza, with the Israeli Prime Minister publicly decrying Gallant after he had called the goal an ‘absolute victory’—nonsense.
These disagreements have also been seen in Israel’s political realm, where Gallant supported the removal of an exemption preventing the ultra-Orthodox from being conscripted, which is theorized to have decreased his popularity in the eyes of Netanyahu as the Israeli Prime Minister’s position is held together by a coalition requiring the support of two ultra-Orthodox parties.
Jeff Halper, Head of Israel Committee Against House Demolition (ICAHD), has found the news of Gallant unsurprising arguing that the Israeli Prime Minister had intended to do so for months:
“It was expected for a long time; he has tried to fire him for the last year. Netanyahu is in the process of creating a kind of dictatorship in Israel. His model is Orban in Hungary, and Orban’s model is, what he calls, an illiberal democracy, in other words, a democracy where there is a leader, one ruling party, and mainly because of the conflict with the Palestinians, the Israeli citizens have moved further and further right.”
Halper views the sacking of Gallant as Netanyahu removing any ‘rivals’ in his vicinity to maintain his position in Israel, which has constantly been under threat even before October 7th.
“In a way, you have a situation similar to Hungary where, under the guise of democracy, you can have a strongman like Netanyahu. So, he is in the process of eliminating any potential rivals or anybody that he sees as holding back his policies, and Gallant was one of them,” theorized Halper.
Halper also argued that Netanyahu is possibly waiting for the US elections to conclude, hoping that former President Donald Trump emerges victorious and assists Netanyahu’s office in its campaign of ‘absolute victory.’
“Gallant was a professional military person, and he said that we have achieved our military goals in Gaza months ago; we have to get out, and we have to get a deal to release the hostages. That was a threat to Netanyahu because he wants to continue this war precisely because of what happened today: he was waiting for Trump to get elected; he thinks Trump is going to consolidate Netanyahu’s own place in power and finish the Palestinian issue,” argued Halper.
The Israeli government has announced Israel Katz as Gallants successor as Minister of Defence, leaving the future in the Middle East ever more ambigious.
Listen to the full interview here:
Photo: Wikimedia
