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Over theidfidf,idfYour browser does not support the element. past year the two men leading Israel’s war effort could barely hide their contempt for each other. So when Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, announced on November 5th that he was, at last, firing his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, because of the “increasingly wide crisis of confidence” between them, it was not surprising. But the timing, with Israeli troops still fighting in Gaza and , and Iran expected to respond to s, was unexpected.The two men have differed on strategy throughout the war. Mr Gallant was in favour of launching a major assault on Hizbullah, the Iran-backed Shia militia in Lebanon, immediately after the attacks by Hamas, the Palestinian militants in Gaza, in October last year. Mr Netanyahu waited for nearly 11 months. In Gaza Mr Gallant has for some time favoured winding down ground operations and preparing an alternative Palestinian force to take over the strip. The prime minister, in hock to his far-right allies, has refused. With the security chiefs, Mr Gallant has argued for a deal with Hamas which would have included the release of the 101 Israeli hostages still in Gaza. After his firing, he said “there will be no forgiveness for abandoning the hostages. It is a mark of Cain on Israeli society and those leading this mistaken path.”But the immediate motives for his dismissal are likely to reflect more recent concerns of Mr Netanyahu. One is the demand from the ultra-Orthodox parties in his coalition to pass legislation that would restore an exemption from military service for students of religious seminaries. Israel’s Supreme Court has ruled the exemption unconstitutional. Mr Gallant has opposed the new law that would deny the Israel Defence Forces () tens of thousands of new recruits when Israel is facing the prospect of needing to be more mobilised for a long time. On November 4th he issued, against Mr Netanyahu’s wishes, call-up papers for 7,000 religious students. Differences on military strategy are one thing, but jeopardising the coalition is another. Mr Netanyahu’s war strategy has always prioritised his own political survival.Then there are two investigations, both initiated by the that have recently emerged into goings-on within Mr Netanyahu’s office. The first involves a spokesperson of the prime minister who is alleged to have extracted classified information from the military intelligence branch and leaked it to bolster Mr Netanyahu’s public argument against a ceasefire. The second, still under a gagging order, is thought to concern allegations that transcripts of security meetings in his office were being tampered with.Mr Gallant is not directing these investigations; the police and Shin Bet, the domestic security service, are carrying them out. But his sacking could be both an attempt to divert attention from the allegations and a warning to senior officials who have supported Mr Gallant and who can influence the course of the probes.Mr Gallant is no dove. He has directed the ’s devastating campaign in Gaza, which has killed over 40,000 people, a majority of them civilians, and displaced most of Gaza’s population. In May the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court recommended that arrest warrants for war crimes should be issued against both him and Mr Netanyahu. But after the departure in June of Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, the centrist members of the war cabinet, Mr Gallant was the only voice in Israel’s cabinet advocating a path towards a ceasefire in Gaza. With him gone, there is no counterbalance in the government to the far-right ministers who are calling for a perpetual Israeli presence in Gaza and for building settlements there.Mr Gallant was also the main contact in the government for the Biden administration’s forlorn attempts to rein in Israel. It seems no coincidence that Mr Netanyahu chose the day of America’s election, when Washington’s attention was focused at home, to get rid of him. With Mr Gallant out of the way and Donald Trump, who he assumes will be friendlier than his predecessor, in power, Mr Netanyahu hopes he can prove to Israelis that he can at last deliver the “total victory” he has promised.
