Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided to reverse course and keep former IDF Chief of Staff Yoav Gallant in his position as Defense Minister, reportedly in light of the current security threats facing the Jewish State.
“The prime minister is postponing his decision until another occasion mainly due to the security developments in the area,” a source close to Netanyahu told The Jerusalem Post Monday night.
The move follows a week in which protests were ramped up across the country in response to Netanyahu’s decision to fire Gallant after he took to the airwaves to announce his opposition to the government’s planned judicial reforms – doing so while Netanyahu was abroad and heading back to Israel from an official visit to the UK.
Although Netanyahu publicly fired Gallant, he did not follow up with the required formal authorized letter sealing the dismissal.
The two men appeared together Monday at pre-Passover events with the IDF, apparently to present a public show of unity.
“The most important thing is to leave politics at the gate of the base, to unite together to protect the eternal Israel; that’s what we’re here for,” Netanyahu said at one of the events.
“The threats against us are large threats. They come from one source – Iran — which sends out its octopus tentacles to Gaza, Syria, Lebanon, Judea and Samaria, and even tries to recruit citizens from within Israeli territory.
“We need to present a united front to the enemy . . . when we see efforts to harm us from arenas that have been active in recent years,” Gallant noted in his own remarks.
“It is important to tell our enemies not to err, because internal debates do not matter,” Netanyahu emphasized. “We will fight them both within and beyond our borders with all necessary force to defend ourselves by ourselves . . . Together we stand, and together we will win.”
