Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli on Tuesday morning told Reshet Bet Radio he justified the dismissal of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. “It’s improper when the defense minister conducts an independent policy that contradicts the position of the Political Security Cabinet,” he said.
On Monday, the Israeli media announced for the first time that Netanyahu was preparing to fire Gallant. The Prime Minister’s Office denied the rumors regarding the appointment of opposition MK Gideon Sa’ar to replace him and did not comment on the report regarding Netanyahu’s intention to fire Gallant soon.
Netanyahu tried to convince Sa’ar to take the foreign ministry portfolio instead of defense, but Sa’ar refused. Netanyahu was going to appoint the current foreign minister, Israel Katz, a Likud loyalist, to the defense post.
Chikli, whose Likud party until recently criticized the former Likud member Sa’ar harshly and saw him as a political enemy, claimed: “The addition of Gideon Sa’ar is a good thing and I support his addition to the government.” He also said the Netanyahu cabinet would be “in harmony with him,” seeing as he, unlike Gallant, is eager to start the war against Hezbollah in south Lebanon.
The Haredi parties expressed satisfaction with the possibility of Sa’ar entering the government. Senior Haredi officials told Kan11 News they would even be willing to consider giving up ministerial positions to facilitate Sa’ar’s joining the coalition, which would grow to 68 out of 120 (or 67 should Gallant throw a tantrum). Those Haredi officials believe they “could work better” with Sa’ar than with Gallant on a new IDF draft law.
A US official told Axios’ Barak Ravid “it would be crazy” of Netanyahu to fire an experienced defense minister like Gallant in the middle of the war in Gaza and a coming all-out war in Lebanon, although at least one American president, a Republican, sacked all his failing generals in the middle of the Civil War.
State Dept. Spokesman Matthew Miller was asked by a reporter on Monday: “Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant reportedly during his meeting with Amos Hochstein said the only way left to return the Israeli residents to the north to their homes is by military action – do you have any comment on that? Sounds like things are not going well with diplomacy…”
Miller responded: “We have long made clear that we believe a diplomatic solution is the correct way, the only way, to bring calm to the north of Israel and allow Israeli citizens to return to their homes…. So we’ll continue to push for a diplomatic resolution. And in our conversations with Israeli officials, they have always made clear, as you – I think you’ve heard them say publicly on a number of occasions, that they would ultimately prefer a diplomatic resolution.”
And this is why Gallant has to go, because he is not the minister of diplomacy, his job is to command the IDF to kill Hezbollah terrorists who have been shelling Israeli civilians up north since October 9, 2024.
Two sources familiar with Amos Hochstein’s meetings with Gallant and Netanyahu told Barak Ravid the US envoy told both leaders that the US does not believe a broader conflict in Lebanon would achieve the goal of returning displaced Israelis to their homes in the north.
Were those the same White House officials who said Israel must not enter Gaza after October 7 and discouraged Israel from taking over Rafah?
According to the Prime Minister’s office, Netanyahu told Hochstein, “Israel appreciates and respects the support of the Biden administration, but in the end, it will do what is necessary to maintain its security and return the residents of the north to their homes safely.”
According to the defense ministry, Gallant told Hochstein the possibility of a diplomatic solution to the situation on the northern border “has passed because Hezbollah continues to tie itself to Hamas and refuses to end the conflict,” according to Axios.
On Monday night, a few hundred Israeli anarchists blocked the Namir highway (the coastal Highway 2) at the corner of Pinsker Street, Gideon Sa’ar’s residence, for many hours. No police were present, according to a Jewish Press photographer who was stuck on the bus there.
She filed this video:
