GNITN - Special Edition

Israel At War – Day 396

You’re Fired!

Sent Walking Papers

We learn from a report in The Jerusalem Post that Prime Minister Netanyahu pulled an Apprentice line from Donald Trump and told his Defense Minister “You’re Fired!”:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant Tuesday night, citing a “crisis of trust” that “gradually deepened,” replacing him with Foreign Minister Israel Katz.

The move comes as Israel is braced for a direct Iranian attack and after the IDF under Gallant’s command executed a successful strike on the Islamic Republic that targeted its missile production facilities.

It was the kind of fireworks you rarely see in a war, but the PM felt it was needed:

“In the midst of a war, more than ever, full trust is required between the prime minister and the minister of defense,” Netanyahu stated, as he laid out his rationale for Gallant’s removal while the country was over a year into a war with Iran and its proxies; chiefly Hamas and Hezbollah.

"Unfortunately, although in the first few months of the campaign, there was such trust and very fruitful work, over the last few months, this trust has cracked between myself and the Defense Minister," Netanyahu said.

Right now Gallant is taking the high road although I’m sure he will speak his mind at some point:

Gallant wrote on X, "The security of the State of Israel was and will always remain my life's mission."

The actual dismissal is not immediate:

His firing will come into effect in 48 hours. The appointment of Katz and that of United Right Chairman Gideon Saar, who will replace him, requires the approval of the government and then of the Knesset.

To many Gallant was the levelheaded one in the government but the rifts between him and the PM go all the way back to before the war:

Gallant has been the stable pillar of Israeli-US relations and is well-loved by the public, but he has sharply disagreed with Netanyahu on critical military and political issues, including the hostage deal and drafting the ultra-religious into the army. Netanyahu fired him amid the US elections when the Biden administration was distracted by the Presidential election.

Bad Blood For Some Time

Netanyahu has been in the place before:

The animosity between the two men predated the war, with Netanyahu initially attempting to fire him in March 2023, backtracking after public protests in support of Gallant shut down the country. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets in protest in what became known as "the Night of Gallant," and Netanyahu backtracked.

But this firing isn’t going to set well with the nation even if it is the right thing to do:

This second firing already threatened to engulf the country in protests. Opposition leader Yair Lapid called on the public to hold large street protests.

"I call on Yesh Atid members and all Zionist patriots to take to the streets tonight in protest," he wrote on X.

Politics always got between them:

Netanyahu fired Gallant after a crisis with the United Torah Judaism party deepened over the prime minister's decision to backtrack on a bill that would incentivize ultra-religious yeshiva students to avoid IDF service.

Gallant has objected to Netanyahu's attempt to obtain an ultra-religious exemption from IDF service, sparking a new wave of accusations that he was sacrificing Israeli security on the alter of his own political ambitions.

Netanyahu’s political opponents are having a heyday with the move:

Lapid wrote that Gallant’s dismissal “in the middle of a war is an act of madness, “Netanyahu is sacrificing Israel's security and IDF soldiers for despicable political survival. The full-right government prefers draft dodgers over those who serve," he continued.

The PM rebuffed that line of reasoning and added his own:

Netanyahu said that he was committed to safeguarding Israeli security and leading the country to an “absolute victory.”

Still, he said, ”Significant gaps have emerged between myself and Gallant in the management of the campaign, and these gaps have been accompanied by statements and actions that contradict the government's decisions and the decisions of the Cabinet.

He said he wanted to heal the rifts, but couldn’t:

"I made many attempts to bridge these gaps, but they widened. They also reached the public in an unacceptable way, and worse, they reached the enemy - our enemies took satisfaction from this and derived a lot of benefit from it," Netanyahu said.

I seem to recall that one of the psychological warfare tactics of Hamas was to put pressure on Gallant and are no doubt smiling over the firing.

Katz Takes Over

Who is going to succeed Gallant? We find who the PM nominated in an article from The Times Of Israel:

Israel Katz welcomes his appointment as defense minister after Yoav Gallant is fired by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Katz accepted the appointment with a smile:

“I thank Prime Minister Netanyahu for the trust he placed in me in appointing me to the position of minister of defense,” Katz posts on X.

“I accept this responsibility with a sense of mission and a deep commitment to the security of the State of Israel and its citizens,” Katz says.

He then said the obvious for someone needing to let people know his intentions:

“We will work together to advance the defense establishment to victory against our enemies and to achieve the goals of the war: the return of all the hostages as the most important mission, the destruction of Hamas in Gaza, the defeat of Hezbollah in Lebanon, the curbing of Iranian aggression and the safe return of the residents of the north and south to their homes,” he says.

Netanyahu tells us why he chose Katz as hear from an article in the Jewish News Syndicate:

Netanyahu said that Katz “has proven his abilities and has made a contribution to national security as minister of foreign affairs, minister of finance, minister of intelligence for five years and, equally important, as a long-standing member of the state security cabinet.”

The PM talked about the man himself:

“Israel Katz brings to the table an impressive combination of rich experience and executive capabilities,” Netanyahu said. “He is known as a man of action who combines responsibility with reserved decisiveness, all important qualities for driving a military campaign.”

Netanyahu supported Katz and his replacement as Jerusalem’s top diplomat Gideon Sa’ar when he added this:

Netanyahu added that naming Katz and Sa’ar to fill new roles “will reinforce the government and the security cabinet, transforming them into bodies that work cooperatively and harmoniously for the security of the State of Israel, for the citizens of Israel and for our victory.”

We expected Iran to provide the fireworks today and they may still as they might think that the divides in Israel will make them weak and be distracted. That would be a trap they should avoid but I sense their pride will get the better of them at some point. We might not know how this changing of leadership will shake out, but we need to pray for the peace of Jerusalem in light of this news.