The sacking of Defence Minister Yoav Gallant by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu led to protests in all of Israel. Netanyahu claimed there was a “crisis of trust” between him and Gallant over the last months, and he will be replaced by Foreign Minister Israel Katz.
Gallant said in a statement on the reasons behind his firing: “The reasons have been publicized in regard to three main topics-the issues of the treatment of captives, draft immunity, and the requirement of the establishment of a national inquest into lessons from this war.”.
Gallant was also openly critical of the having to make such painful concessions as the cost of bringing back all the Hamas-held hostages; Netanyahu wasn’t of like mind on this one either. Besides, he didn’t believe in giving an exemption from the mandatory service in Israel’s army, either.
So, that pitted him against Netanyahu’s cabinet again. Then complicating everything were ongoing protests and calls for resignation against Netanyahu; his government had been forced now to have their eye firmly back again on getting that hostage swap deal.
The protesters turned violent; they blocked the traffic on major highways, set fires on the highway. The Forum of Hostages and Missing Families is very disappointed over the dismissal of the current Chief Minister and stated that it would damage all possibilities to negotiate with them to release the hostages.
At least 100 are missing among the hostages, whose cases have emerged in relation to the attacks carried out by Hamas, which struck the Israeli settlements on 7th October this year.
A Netanyahu move to install Katz, who is perceived as being more hawkish, coupled with the shuffling of the foreign ministerial role, is a leadership shake-up at a time of significant public outcry.
The ousting of Gallant, which will occur in 48 hours, has also led calls for protest by the opposition and takes place at a time when Netanyahu is under pressure from factions on the right wing over passing a contentious bill exempting Ultra-Orthodox citizens from military service, something Gallant had opposed.
This political shift occurs as the US presidential election is already in progress, and these diplomatic implications of this ousting are yet more alarming, especially to the White House, where Gallant was perceived as a power ally.
All this has placed very high political tensions in Israel with huge opposition from the public and inside the government in regard to issues concerning the hostage situation and the exemption of military service.