Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has removed one of the least deferential members of his cabinet by dismissing Israel’s defense minister, a move which analysts said will make it easier for him to set Israel’s wartime trajectory but which also comes with risks.
Yoav Gallant, the departing defense minister, had broken with Mr. Netanyahu by pressing for a cease-fire with Hamas, saying it was the only way to free dozens of Israeli hostages held by the group in Gaza. On the domestic front, Mr. Gallant had pushed to scrap an exemption from military service for ultra-Orthodox Jews, a measure that risked collapsing Mr. Netanyahu’s government because it angered its ultra-Orthodox members.
“Netanyahu saw Gallant as the opposition within his own coalition,” said Nadav Shtrauchler, a political analyst and former strategist for Mr. Netanyahu. “Now, it will be easier for him to go in his own direction, not just politically, but militarily and strategically.”
Mr. Netanyahu swiftly denied that he would use Mr. Gallant’s departure to fire other senior members of the security establishment. Still, commentators speculated that by replacing Mr. Gallant with Israel Katz, who is expected to be a more pliant defense minister, it would be easier for Mr. Netanyahu to remove the military chief of staff, Herzi Halevi.
But in firing the defense minister, Mr. Netanyahu has drawn accusations that he is prioritizing personal goals over national ones to appease far-right members of his coalition. And it suggested that he will double down on policies that are either deeply unpopular, in the case of the exemption for the ultra-Orthodox, or at least polarizing — like his refusal to compromise in the cease-fire negotiations with Hamas.
In a signal of the widespread discontent over Mr. Netanyahu’s decision, centrist columnists described it as an attack on democracy, while tens of thousands of protesters spilled into the streets in Israel on Tuesday night, blocking a major highway.
Mr. Netanyahu is “evidently calculating that it will only be a short term firestorm and he will then be left in a better position,” said Michael Koplow, an analyst at the Israel Policy Forum, a New York-based research group.
But his support for the policies opposed by Mr. Gallant “will cost him in the long term,” Mr. Koplow said. “So even if his short term calculation is correct, he may turn out to be penny wise and pound foolish.”
On issues that matter most to Israel’s critics, like the conduct of Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon, Mr. Gallant was fairly aligned with Mr. Netanyahu.
Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court sought arrest warrants for both men in relation to the Gaza offensive. It was Mr. Gallant who played a bigger day-to-day role in managing a campaign against Hamas that has killed tens of thousands of Gazans and damaged most of its buildings. Mr. Gallant was also one of the first ministers to push for the killing of Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader, months before the government signed off on his assassination.
But within Israel, Mr. Gallant was seen as a thorn in Mr. Netanyahu’s side.
His public disputes with Mr. Netanyahu began several months before the war began, when in March 2023 he spoke out against the prime minister’s efforts to overhaul the judicial system. Mr. Netanyahu fired him days later, only to rescind his dismissal after mass protests swept the country.
During the war, Mr. Gallant had spoken publicly about Palestinian governance in postwar Gaza, an idea that Mr. Netanyahu had avoided discussing in detail for fear of angering far-right allies who seek to settle Jewish civilians in the territory.
And Mr. Gallant had developed a strong and independent relationship with the Biden administration, irking Mr. Netanyahu, whose relationship with President Biden has become fractious even as the president continues to arm and fund Israel’s military.
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