Netanyahu fires Israel’s defense minister amid domestic tensions and a multi-front war

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, saying he no longer trusted him. This is a drastic step as Israel fights on multiple fronts, faces domestic political turmoil and contends with regional and global insecurity.

The decision – the second time in as many years that Netanyahu has announced Gallant’s firing – comes as Iran threatens to attack Israel in response to an earlier round of bombings. This also comes amid a growing investigation into revelations of classified material by a Netanyahu associate, with the prime minister’s office denying involvement in the revelation and suggesting the investigation was “arbitrary.”

Gallant’s dismissal was announced on election day in the United States, the outcome of which will determine the next four years of US-Israel relations. Gallant was one of the most trusted Israeli government officials in Washington.

In a statement delivered as a video message in Hebrew, Netanyahu said he could no longer work with Gallant due to irreconcilable differences over the war.

“In the midst of war, absolute trust between the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense is needed more than ever,” the statement said. “Although this trust existed in the first few months of the military operation and we had a very productive collaboration, unfortunately this trust between me and the Minister of Defense began to crumble in the last few months. Defense Secretary Gallant and I had significant disagreements over the direction of the military operation, disagreements that were accompanied by public statements and actions that contradicted the decisions of the administration and the Security Cabinet.”

He continued: “I made several attempts to resolve these differences, but they continued to grow. They were also inappropriately brought to the attention of the public, and what is worse, they came to the attention of the enemy; Our enemies have taken great pleasure in these dissensions and derived great benefit from them.”

Netanyahu did not elaborate on these disagreements, but Gallant publicly disagreed with Netanyahu on a number of issues, including U.S.-Israel relations, the need for a detailed postwar plan in Gaza, and Netanyahu’s efforts to free Haredi Orthodox men from to maintain compulsory military service.

Netanyahu said he would replace Gallant with current Foreign Minister Israel Katz. Gideon Saar, a politician who has oscillated between Netanyahu’s ally and rival, will be the new foreign minister.

Protesters took to the streets almost immediately after Netanyahu’s announcement. Netanyahu last tried to fire Gallant in March 2023, when the defense minister publicly expressed opposition to the government’s efforts to weaken the judiciary. Protests forced Netanyahu to reverse this decision.

Gallant is the minister most trusted by the Biden administration as it grows increasingly frustrated with Netanyahu and his conduct of the war in Gaza. Veteran investigative journalist Bob Woodward recently said that Biden feels “18 of the 19 people working for Netanyahu are liars.” He did not specify who the 19th person was, although Gallant speaks almost daily with Lloyd Austin, the US Secretary of Defense.

This relationship is particularly sensitive at this moment as Iran threatens to counterattack Israel for its retaliatory strikes against Iranian military bases last month. At Biden’s request, Netanyahu held back from attacks on Iranian oil and nuclear sites.

Netanyahu’s firing of Gallant came just minutes after he released a statement saying there had been a “flood of criminal leaks” from the Security Cabinet, the Israeli government’s top decision-making body on war matters, and that he expressed concern about it complained that the police were selectively investigating him.

This investigation, which is dominating Israeli headlines, focuses on an employee in the Prime Minister’s Office named Eliezer Feldstein, who is suspected of collaborating with people in the security apparatus to leak top-secret documents he received from Hamas and to manipulate. The leak of alleged information, published in Bild, a German publication, and in London’s Jewish Chronicle, bolstered Netanyahu’s claims at a time when he was reportedly impeding progress toward a ceasefire deal with Hamas that would have led to the group’s release from Israel hostages.