Israel in turmoil after Netanyahu fires defence minister Yoav Gallant

The announcement that Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant had been dismissed was apparently orchestrated for just five minutes before the evening news, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz has reported.

The announcement at 7.55 pm on Tuesday, as the world’s attention was riveted on the US presidential election, was apparently designed to deflect attention from an ongoing inquiry into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s alleged criminal conduct in falsifying minutes of meetings in the prime minister’s office after war broke out on 7 October 2023, the Opposition claimed.

The heads of four opposition parties — Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid), Benny Gantz (National Unity), Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beiteinu) and Yair Golan (Democrats) — addressed the media on Wednesday, 6 November at Israel's Knesset (parliament) to issue a joint statement making the allegation. They said in May, a man called Avi Gil left his job as Netanyahu's military secretary and complained to Israel's attorney-general about the falsification of minutes.

A report in Haaretz holds that firing Gallant was a transparent (and admittedly successful) attempt to distract the media from a police investigation into suspicions that minutes of war-related meetings at the PMO were falsified. The announcement of Gallant's ouster was orchestrated for five minutes before the evening news because that's what Netanyahu's people do best: they dominate televised news.

Gallant, a long-time rival of Netanyahu from within the Likud Party, the announcement held, would be replaced by Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz.

Netanyahu and Gallant repeatedly clashed over differences about the war in Gaza. But Netanyahu had avoided firing his rival, taking the step only when the world’s attention was focused on the US presidential election.

Netanyahu cited “significant gaps” and a “crisis of trust” in his Tuesday evening announcement as he replaced Gallant with a longtime loyalist. “In the midst of a war, more than ever, full trust is required between the prime minister and defence minister,” Netanyahu said. “Unfortunately, although in the first months of the campaign there was such trust and there was very fruitful work, during the last months this trust cracked between me and the defence minister.”

The former defence minister said his dismissal stemmed from disagreements on three issues: ultra-orthodox military conscription, a hostage deal with Hamas, and a state commission of inquiry into the government’s failures related to the 7 October Hamas attacks that sparked the ongoing Gaza war, the Times of Israel reported.

Gallant had a stormy relationship with the prime minister even before the Hamas attacks. In 2023 itself, he spoke out against the Netanyahu government’s proposed overhaul of the judicial system, warning that the national rift over the issue had come to constitute a tangible security threat. Following this, PM Netanyahu fired him, but had to backtrack two weeks later amidst a public outcry.

As demonstrators hit the streets in Israel, they were quoted as saying that “the lawlessness of Netanyahu in taking this decision in the middle of the war and with a potential attack by Iran that could bomb at any moment is unacceptable; he does it to please the Haredim, the orthodox jews, and ensure that he doesn’t have a trial”, referring to differences over mandatory military service for Israel’s Haredi or orthodox Jewish community.