Yoav Gallant addresses nation (GPO)
Israel’s Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, a former general in the Israel Defense Forces and a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party, might be on his way out of the government. According to a report on Israel’s Channel 12 News, the inner circle around Netanyahu is not happy with Gallant.
On Wednesday, Yoav Gallant was forced to respond to attacks from members of his own party as he spoke before the Knesset Plenum. And Channel 12 cited sources that say the people around Benjamin Netanyahu are “debating” whether or not to remove Gallant from his position in the coming months.
Channel 12 said “Around the prime minister there are opinions one way or the other, but the general consensus is that Gallant is no longer part of the coalition.”
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According to the sources, people think that Gallant acts as an “independent actor” ho is not loyal to the coalition.
At the center of the dispute with Yoav Gallant is the Defense Minister’s position on drafting members of Israel’s Ultra-Orthodox communities into military service. Gallant supports drafting them and said he will not vote for proposed new legislation that would greatly limit the numbers of those drafted. This has caused Prime Minister Netanyahu many problems in keeping his coalition government together since it relies on the votes of Ultra-Orthodox parties to maintain its majority.
This is not the first time Yoav Gallant has alienated his fellow coalition members by taking a public position opposed to a government policy. In May of 2023, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired his own minister of defense. The firing of Gallant came after he held a press conference declaring that he could no longer support the government’s controversial judicial reform plan and called for a suspension of the legislative process for its passage.
Netanyahu reversed his decision just a few days later and since the Hamas massacre on October 7 and the ensuing war in Gaza have caused any judicial reforms to be shelved.
Channel 12 said that now members of the Likud Party and the governing coalition intend to increase the attacks on Yoav Gallant. The channel implied that the harsh criticisms Gallant suffered in the Knesset Wednesday was just the beginning.
