Netanyahu ousts defense minister, a political rival and fierce war critic

TEL AVIV - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday dismissed Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, one of the most vocal and prominent critics of his war strategy and the country’s primary interlocutor with the Biden administration on military matters amid a widening conflict in the Middle East.

“In the midst of war, full trust between the prime minister and the defense minister is needed more than ever,” Netanyahu said in a video posted to X. “In recent months, this trust has eroded.”

Netanyahu said he decided to end Gallant’s tenure on Tuesday, and that he would be replaced by Foreign Minister Israel Katz, a close ally with little military experience. He added that Gideon Saar, a former Netanyahu disciple, would replace Katz as foreign minister.

The surprise late-night announcement, released as Washington and much of the rest of the world was preoccupied with the U.S. presidential election, sent immediate shock waves across Israel. Thousands of protesters turned out in Tel Aviv, and prominent members of the security establishment condemned the move as an effort by Netanyahu to ensure his political survival at a time of growing national peril - with the country engaged in grinding wars in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon and, increasingly, in direct conflict with Iran.

“This is politics at the expense of national security,” Benny Gantz, a former member of Netanyahu’s emergency war cabinet, posted on X.

Tchelet Fried, a 26-year-old law student from Tel Aviv, who was out at the protest, said Gallant’s firing raised concerns that “what drives the prime minister is not just Israel’s security, but narrower political interests.”

She added that she came out that night with her friends. “We want our future here in Israel, and that’s why we are fighting.”

In a televised statement, Gallant said his dismissal was the result of three disagreements with Netanyahu: over the question of ultra-Orthodox enlistment in the military, his support for a cease-fire that would free the hostages in Gaza and his push for a national commission of inquiry into the failures of Oct. 7, 2023.

“Israel’s security is my life’s mission,” he said, as demonstrators blocked highways, set fires and blasted foghorns. “It’s time for change,” Gallant said.

“Minister Gallant has been a trusted partner,” Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said after the news broke Tuesday. “America’s commitment to Israel’s security remains ironclad and the U.S. Department of Defense will continue to work closely with Israel’s next Minister of Defense.”

Netanyahu has clashed for months with Gallant, a political rival from his own Likud party who has publicly criticized the prime minister over what he characterized as a lack of strategic vision in Gaza and his failure to reach an agreement with Hamas that would return the dozens of hostages still languishing in Gaza.

But what may have sealed Gallant’s fate was his announcement Monday that the army would send conscription notices to thousands of young ultra-Orthodox men, following a decision by the nation’s Supreme Court this year requiring them to serve in the military. Ultra-Orthodox parties, a key part of Netanyahu’s far-right coalition, have fought for decades to enshrine military exemptions for students at religious schools, and had threatened to pull out of the government if draft notices went out.

Gallant has long argued that the ultra-Orthodox should not be able to dodge the country’s mandatory draft and, with Israel locked in the longest war in its history, he has doubled down, putting the prime minister’s coalition in jeopardy. It was “the most central issue for our existence and our future,” Gallant said Tuesday.

“Netanyahu could have made an appearance that it was for defense issues, but instead he made it purely political, tied to the issue of conscription,” said Gayil Talshir, a political scientist from Hebrew University who is in contact with senior members of Israel’s defense establishment.

“Netanyahu had to prove to the ultra-Orthodox that he would do anything for them, but he may have miscalculated,” she said, pointing to an Israeli public opinion poll in October that found more than 60 percent of Likud voters said that Netanyahu’s capitulation on the military conscription issue would “harm national security.”

It was not the first time the two men clashed over domestic issues. Netanyahu first attempted to fire Gallant in March 2023 after the defense minister criticized the government’s efforts to weaken Israel’s judiciary, but was forced to quietly back down after nearly a million Israelis took to the streets in protest - a spontaneous outpouring later dubbed “Gallant night.”

In September, Netanyahu entered negotiations to replace the defense minister just days before the Israeli military, under Gallant’s command, carried out a sweeping attack on Hezbollah pagers that preceded its ground invasion of southern Lebanon. Netanyahu tabled the discussion on Gallant, but had communicated to Israeli media that his ouster was only a matter of time.

Netanyahu’s short-term effort to shore up his coalition could have far-reaching ramifications for Israel’s multifront conflict in the Middle East. Gallant kept in close contact with his U.S. counterparts, who often preferred to discuss the war with him than with Netanyahu, and would ask him to confirm assertions made by the prime minister, according to an Israeli close to Gallant who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.

Last month, Netanyahu called off a planned trip by Gallant to Washington, demanding a call from Biden before his defense minister could depart. Gallant had met Thursday with White House representatives in Israel and, as recently as Monday, had talked by phone with Secretary of State Antony Blinken about military operations in Gaza and Lebanon.

Gallant had advocated not just for a cease-fire and hostage-release deal in Gaza, but for eventual Palestinian rule over the enclave - in line with the Biden administration’s postwar vision - an outcome Netanyahu has rejected. When the prime minister has insisted that Israel keep up its military pressure on Hamas, Gallant has publicly contradicted him, saying Israel has achieved its goal of degrading the militant group’s capabilities and should look ahead to the day after.

“It is possible to bring back the hostages, and it involves compromises, some of which are painful,” Gallant said in his remarks Tuesday.

Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed tens of thousands of people and created a humanitarian catastrophe, triggering an unusual letter last month from U.S. officials demanding that Israel improve aid access to the enclave or risk a suspension of military aid.

In southern Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces has encountered stiff resistance from Hezbollah fighters, and Netanyahu is under pressure to wind down the war and follow through on his promise to allow some 60,000 displaced Israelis to return to their homes in the north.

Iran, meanwhile, has vowed to retaliate for Israel’s attack on military facilities last month, and hawkish voices in Israel are calling for direct strikes on the country’s nuclear program.

Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel’s far-right national security minister who has long pushed for Gallant’s ouster, congratulated Netanyahu on his decision Tuesday. “With Gallant … it is not possible to achieve absolute victory,” he said in a post on X.