Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, left, and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant at a news conference at Kirya military base in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Oct. 28, 2023, three weeks after the war with Hamas began.
Credit...Abir Sultan/EPA, via Shutterstock

A Timeline of Clashes Between Netanyahu and Gallant, Israel’s Former Defense Minister

Yoav Gallant, the ousted cabinet minister, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, had sharp public disagreements over Israel’s war against Hamas and what will follow it.

by · NY Times

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Tuesday dismissed his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, as the country fights a two-front war and waits for the results of a pivotal U.S. presidential election.

In a video statement, Mr. Netanyahu said that the critical trust needed between a leader and defense minister — in a time of war, especially — no longer existed between him and Mr. Gallant. He said the two had worked well together in the early months of the war but that in recent months relations had broken down.

Mr. Gallant, who has argued for a cease-fire deal in Gaza that would secure the release of hostages held there, said he was fired for three primary reasons: he had called for universal conscription, prioritized the return of hostages still being held in Gaza and demanded an independent commission to investigate security failures that led to the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.

But Mr. Netanyahu has fired Mr. Gallant before — and then un-fired him — and there have been many public disagreements between the two men, who both belong to the Likud party. Here are some of the high-profile clashes between Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Gallant that led up to today’s events.

Conscription of the ultra-Orthodox

In June, the Israeli Supreme Court ordered an end to a longstanding exemption from mandatory military service for the country’s ultra-Orthodox Jews. Mr. Gallant approved initial conscription orders for thousands of ultra-Orthodox men.

The ultra-Orthodox exemption has long polarized Israeli society, where most Jewish 18-year-olds, men and women, are conscripted for years of obligatory service. Many ultra-Orthodox view sending their children to the Israeli military as unacceptable, fearing they might be swayed by secularism or looser interpretations of religious practice.

As the ultra-Orthodox population has grown to over one million — more than 13 percent of the country — other Jewish Israelis have become increasingly frustrated and resentful of its military exemption. They say it is fundamentally unfair and untenable, especially as Israel is fighting wars on multiple fronts.

Political analysts said that the government’s internal struggle over conscription also threatened the stability of Mr. Netanyahu’s coalition, which depends on the support of two ultra-Orthodox parties that support the exemption.

Yesterday, Mr. Gallant approved the conscription of an additional 7,000 ultra-Orthodox men, adding new fuel to the dispute.

‘Total victory’ over Hamas

Mr. Netanyahu’s office publicly slammed Mr. Gallant in August after Israeli news media reported that the defense minister had disparaged the prime minister’s goal of achieving a “total victory” over Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Mr. Gallant reportedly told lawmakers in a private security briefing that the idea was “nonsense.”

“When Gallant adopts the anti-Israel narrative, he harms the chances of reaching a hostage-release deal,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement. Victory over Hamas and the release of hostages, the statement said, is the “clear directive of Prime Minister Netanyahu and the cabinet, and it obligates everyone — including Gallant.”

In his video statement on Tuesday about dismissing Mr. Gallant, Mr. Netanyahu began by saying that his primary obligation as prime minister was to ensure Israel’s security and lead the country to “total victory,” and he again accused Mr. Gallant of playing into narratives that undermine Israel’s interests.

Postwar reckonings, for Gaza and Israel

Mr. Netanyahu’s rift with the defense minister was evident in May when Mr. Gallant, in a televised address, criticized Mr. Netanyahu’s lack of vision for a postwar Gaza.

This failure, Mr. Gallant said, was driving Israel toward two possible outcomes, both unappealing: Either Israeli would occupy Gaza militarily, or Hamas would return to power, undermining Israel’s military gains. “We will pay in blood and many victims, for no purpose, as well as a heavy economic price,” Mr. Gallant said.

The defense minister also implicitly accused Mr. Netanyahu of putting his own political survival above national interests.

In addition, Mr. Gallant and other Israeli officials have called for an investigation into the security failures that led to the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel that ignited the current conflicts. More than a year into the war, there has been no such reckoning, which could lay blame at the feet of both the prime minister and the defense minister.

Mr. Netanyahu has said that an investigation should wait until after the war. Mr. Gallant said on Tuesday after his dismissal that “only sunlight, and an investigation of the truth, would allow us to draw lessons and build our forces to face the challenges of the future.”

Israel’s judicial overhaul

In early 2023, Mr. Netanyahu announced that he had fired Mr. Gallant — and then reversed his decision 15 days later — during a contentious clash within Israel over Mr. Netanyahu’s proposed overhaul of the judicial system to limit the power of Israel’s Supreme Court

With many military reservists vowing not to serve if the overhaul was enacted, Mr. Gallant criticized the plan and said it threatened military readiness. His dismissal spurred nationwide protests and intensified an already dramatic domestic crisis — one of the gravest in Israeli history, which many in Israel have come to believe helped to embolden Hamas to execute the Oct. 7 attacks.

The episode cemented Mr. Gallant’s reputation among some Israelis as a bulwark against the most extreme far-right elements of Mr. Netanyahu’s government, and the defense minister seemed to embrace that image throughout the war.

Announcing the decision last year to keep Mr. Gallant in his cabinet, after all, Mr. Netanyahu said: “There were disagreements between us, even serious disagreements on some issues, but I decided to leave the disagreements behind us.”

Aaron Boxerman contributed reporting

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