Scott Prosterman
Informed Comment / November 8, 2024
Oakland, Ca. – It was no coincidence that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu chose the US Election Day to fire his Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, when Washington was too distracted to respond. With Netanyahu, everything is calculated for his benefit, even if it inflicts maximum damage on Israel and its allies. Donald Trump’s return to the presidency the same day was an occasion for rejoicing in Netanyahu’s government. No one is happier about this development than Netanyahu and his henchmen, far-right extremists Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezelal Smotrich. This is because Trump will not interfere with Israel’s expansionist campaigns in other countries, and will be a partner in any war with Iran and other gratuitous military campaigns.
On October 7, Gallant was just as hawkish as Netanyahu on Gaza, and delivered himself of some genocidal remarks about cutting off food and other necessities to civilians. He may become a defendant at The Hague for his involvement in that total war. Israel’s right to defend itself, under the UN Charter, does not authorize a disproportionate response that has killed over 40,000 people in Gaza, the bulk of them civilians. But as time has passed, Gallant at least began to plan for a future for Gaza without a permanent Israeli occupation. That strategy conflicts with the goals of Netanyahu and his “Israeli Proud Boys” cabinet ministers Ben-Gvir and Smotrich. They want to resettle Gaza, and develop it with Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and the author of the disastrous Abraham Accords. Gallant was Washington’s only real liaison in Netanyahu’s Likud Party ship of fools. By eliminating Gallant, Netanyahu has given the US no choice but to deal only with him.
Esther Solomon, the Editor-in Chief of the left-leaning Israeli newspaper Haaretz [“the Land”], characterized Gallant as “the last gate-keeping adult left in a senior position in the government.” She went on to say that the sole raison d’être of Israel’s government today to uphold, safeguard, and secure the political ambitions of the prime minister. She observes that Israel is under the control of an autocrat with overweening ambition and an annexationist ideology who promotes the idea of “complete triumph,” and points out that the comparison to Trump is obvious.
Aside from Gaza, another pressing issue roiled the relations of the prime minister with his defense minister. All Israeli citizens are required to serve in the military, except the rigidly observant ultra-Orthodox sects of the Haredim and likeminded Jews. The exemption was a necessary element when Israel was founded, to rebuild the traditions of Jewish scholarship and rabbinic training destroyed during the Holocaust. They were a protected class. But the reasons for those exemptions have long since passed, since Israel has very healthy religious institutions for training rabbis and scholars, and a shortage of young people eligible for military service. In June, Israel’s highest court struck down the military exemption for these fundamentalists. Gallant said, “My firm stance is that every military-age person must be enlisted. They must serve in the Israel Defense Forces and defend the State of Israel. This is no longer just a social issue. It is a paramount issue for our existence and future.”
Haaretz columnist Yossi Verter often has a good reading on the progressive pulse of Israel, and cogently summarizes the complex political dynamics. Verter said of Netanyahu’s election-day firing of Gallant that the defense minister was dismissed to appease the draft-exempt ultra-Orthodox, aiming to preserve Netanyahu’s administration. He maintained that this move directly compromised national security in a deeply unsettling manner, unlike anything Israelis had experienced before. Gallant, he wrote, was in the way because he had obstructed Netanyahu’s effort to permit ultra-Orthodox men to avoid military service. He identified Netanyahu’s primary objective as maintaining his coalition, with its messianic and ethnocentric elements, until October 2026, the latest possible date for elections. Verter insists that Netanyahu’s intention is to reach this point after orchestrating further judicial changes to ensure his path to re-election.
Netanyahu’s colleagues in the far right, ethnonationalist Likud party quickly closed ranks to voice their support for Trump in the election. The see him as a “true friend of Israel,” in that he won’t impede Israel’s military agenda in Lebanon, Syria and Iran. Also, the Israeli far right remains grateful for the disastrous Abraham Accords, which sidelined the Palestinians and so de facto legitimized some of their imperial holdings. Netanyahu’s consolidation coupled with Trump’s return to the White House makes this a very dark time for democracy and western civilization. Netanyahu and Trump have fuelled and supported one another’s cruelties and escape from accountability, as well as one another’s campaign to remain in office to avoid criminal consequences.
The public reaction to Gallant’s firing has been a series of massive street demonstrations, not seen in Israel since before October 7. One of the protesters said, “We, the protesters, believe that Gallant … is actually the only normal person in the government,” and condemned Netanyahu for opening “new fronts in uncalled-for wars.” Gallant attributed his dismissal to the orthodox conscription issue, Netanyahu’s disinterest in a hostage deal, and his resistance to a full investigation of the October 7 military and intelligence failures. Of course, Netanyahu wants to obstruct any investigation because it will be a damning revelation of his personal failures as Prime Minister. Gallant had been publicly dismissive of Netanyahu’s rhetoric of “total victory over Hamas,” and argued that Israel’s military success thus far had already created favourable conditions for a diplomatic hostage deal.”
As with Trump in the US, Netanyahu has made efforts to remove government boundaries and standards to suit his autocratic agenda. This includes meddling in judicial appointments through the Judicial Appointments Committee’s so that Likud politicians will control the panel. Other aspects of this legislative overreach include: “ a political takeover of the judicial ombudsman’s office; transferring the power to open incitement investigations, sensitive because of their chilling effect on freedom of speech, to the police, thereby eliminating the prosecutorial oversight that exists today; granting the government (specifically the communications minister) the power to shut down websites; suffocating the public broadcasting corporation Kan’s (Israeli Public Broadcasting Corp.) funding; shifting responsibility for measuring television ratings to the government; changes to the election laws.” The Likud government has made it a habit to unlawfully ignore the Attorney General’s directives when it suits Netanyahu’s convenience and career goals.
By firing Gallant, Netanyahu has consolidated his hold over his coalition by removing his only real internal critic, whom he perceived as a Trojan horse. But the Biden administration saw Mr. Gallant as a trusted ally and reliable negotiating partner. Netanyahu urgently campaigned to restore Trump to the White House to give him a more malleable partner in his own war to remain in office. This may be Netanyahu’s most brazen signal yet that his personal political life is more important than the return of the hostages or Israeli security.
Scott Prostermanis a writer and communications consultant in the San Francisco Bay Area, and holds an M.A. in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Michigan
