Multiple Israeli opposition leaders called for immediate street protests against the government on Tuesday after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Yoav Gallant as defense minister.
Hundreds of protesters blocked the Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv—where some started fires—and in Herzliya and Ra’anana, among other places.
Netanyahu stated that “during the past several months,” trust between him and Gallant unfortunately “begun to crack.” He announced that Israel Katz, the foreign minister, would replace Gallant.
Gallant said in a video statement, which was carried live on television, that he was dismissed for three reasons: insisting that haredi men serve in the military; being open to compromises with Hamas to return hostages from Gaza; and calling for a national committee of inquiry into the failures of Oct. 7, 2023.
Gallant, a member of the Likud Party who is considered a political moderate and who has clashed with Netanyahu in the past, neither called for protests nor criticized the prime minister directly. He did imply a loss of values.
“When darkness surrounds our values, I stick with my compass,” he said. Gallant also mentioned achievements in Israel’s war on Hamas and Hezbollah, which he called unprecedented.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog wrote in Hebrew that “the last thing that the State of Israel needs right now is upheaval and a rupture in the middle of the war.”
“The security of the State of Israel must supersede all other considerations,” he wrote. “We are in one of the most difficult and challenging times we have ever known. We must not go back towards the abyss. Israel’s enemies are only waiting for a sign of weakness, disintegration or division within us.”
‘Better late than never’
Yair Lapid, the opposition leader, called the mid-war dismissal “an act of madness.”
“Netanyahu is selling Israel’s security and the IDF fighters for a disgraceful political survival,” Lapid wrote, in Hebrew. He called on “all Zionist patriots to take to the streets tonight in protest.”
Yair Golan, the head of the left-wing Democrats party, wrote in Hebrew shortly after Netanyahu’s statement to “take to the Streets.” Na’ama Lazimi, a lawmaker of the same party, called in Hebrew for “non-violent civil disobedience.”
“From tomorrow, a total civil shutdown in the country,” Lazimi wrote. “Don’t wait for anyone.”
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir congratulated Netanyahu and said he “did well” to fire Gallant.
A senior Israeli official close to Netanyahu told JNS that “with Gallant gone, the leaks from the cabinet will most probably subside and the achievements will increase.”
Shlomo Karhi, the Israeli communications minister, wrote in Hebrew that “Gallant did not succeed in rising to the bravery of our courageous fighters who demand victory.”
“Better late than never. Former defense minister Yoav Galant dared to send a letter that was distributed to the media in which he wrote that war has no compass. In doing so, Gallant harmed the resilience of our fighters, the legitimacy of the existential war we are in and in fact harmed our security with this statement,” wrote Tally Gotliv, a vocal Likud lawmaker who has criticized Netanyahu in the past.
“A security minister with defeatist statements, with statements undermining the prime minister during war must go,” Gotliv added, writing in Hebrew. “Mr. Prime Minister, you did a good job in firing Minister Gallant.”
On Monday, Israeli media quoted Israel Defense Forces sources saying that the army plans to send out draft orders to 7,000 haredi men due to manpower issues. The IDF, which had about 3,000 haredi soldiers last year, has been drafting some 1,200 annually in recent years.
The conscription of haredi men is a potential deal breaker for very traditional religious parties, whose support is crucial for Netanyahu’s ruling Knesset coalition.
In August, Gallant dismissed Netanyahu’s stated goal of achieving “absolute victory” in the ongoing war as “nonsense.”
Netanyahu briefly fired Gallant in March 2023 over the defense minister’s vocal reservations about judicial reform that Netanyahu attempted to lead that year. Netanyahu reinstated Gallant amid an increase in the intensity of anti-government protests.
In his speech Tuesday, Gallant said that Israel has “difficult years and complex challenges ahead” vis-à-vis its enemies, including Iran.
Israel carried out a series of strikes in Iran on Oct. 26 in retaliation for the Oct. 1 rocket attack—Iran’s second against Israel since April. The exchange of fire with Iran followed an escalation in Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
