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Did Haredi Conscription Play a Role in Netanyahu’s Decision to Fire Yoav Gallant?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant during a press conference in the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv, Israel, Oct. 28, 2023. Photo: ABIR SULTAN POOL/Pool via REUTERS
As the US election was unfolding on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed Yoav Gallant from his position as Minister of Defense, sparking protests throughout Israel.
A member of Netanyahu’s own Likud party, Gallant has nonetheless been frequently critical of the prime minister. For weeks, Netanyahu has been telegraphing Gallant’s dismissal, citing a “crisis of trust” as the official reason.
Specifically, the prime minister’s office accuses Gallant of resisting or outright refusing a number of orders from the prime minister, including on: the IDF entry into Rafah, assassination of Hezbollah chief Hasan Nasrallah, control of the Philadelphi Corridor (the area in Gaza that connects Hamas to its Iranian resupply), and more.
If the US Secretary of Defense were to engage in similar behavior against presidential orders, that would be considered insubordination, and cause for immediate dismissal — or possibly even treason, and cause for criminal penalties.
Yet in Israel, paradoxically, such behavior is accepted: unlike American cabinet secretaries — who are pure political appointees — Israeli cabinet ministers are (typically) also Members of Knesset. A Member of Knesset is legally independent from the prime minister, and thus permitted, and even expected, to sometimes criticize and disagree, just as a US senator might do towards the president.
Many Israelis saw Gallant as an important moderating voice in a cabinet that otherwise leaned to the right. To be clear: Gallant was fired only from his position as Minister of Defense, but he remains a Member of Knesset and an influential voice in the governing coalition.
Some believe that, contrary to Netanyahu’s statement, Gallant’s dismissal was actually related to the Haredi conscription law.
Last June, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that Haredi (ultra-religious) Israelis may no longer be exempted from military service as they have been for decades. In recent years, conscription was a point of political disagreement — between the priority of equally sharing Israel’s military burden versus a common Haredi argument that the real source of Israel’s safety is actually not the IDF, but rather the spiritual impact of full time study in yeshivas.
Yet with many IDF reservists now forced from their jobs and families for extended periods, the matter has taken on greater weight, with direct, real-world implications for Israeli families and for IDF preparedness. In short, Israel simply does not have enough soldiers to support a massive Haredi exemption while still remaining safe.
Exactly how the Supreme Court ruling will be implemented depends on decisions by IDF leadership and the Minister of Defense. Some Israelis feel that Netanyahu fired Gallant in order to appease the ultra-Orthodox political parties that are essential to his coalition, thus paving the way for a law that minimizes, delays, or entirely avoids Haredi conscription despite the Supreme Court ruling.
Only Netanyahu knows for certain how much the conscription issue impacted his decision, and how much was related to Gallant’s opposition to government decisions. In short, the reasons behind Gallant’s dismissal are various and complex, political, practical, and very very Israeli.
Daniel Pomerantz is the CEO of RealityCheck, an organization dedicated to deepening public conversation through robust research studies and public speaking.
The post Did Haredi Conscription Play a Role in Netanyahu’s Decision to Fire Yoav Gallant? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Smotrich Says Defense Ministry to Spur Voluntary Emigration from Gaza
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends an inauguration event for Israel’s new light rail line for the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, in Petah Tikva, Israel, Aug. 17, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
i24 News – Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Sunday that the government would establish an administration to encourage the voluntary migration of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
“We are establishing a migration administration, we are preparing for this under the leadership of the Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] and Defense Minister [Israel Katz],” he said at a Land of Israel Caucus at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. “The budget will not be an obstacle.”
Referring to the plan championed by US President Donald Trump, Smotrich noted the “profound and deep hatred towards Israel” in Gaza, adding that “sources in the American government” agreed “that it’s impossible for two million people with hatred towards Israel to remain at a stone’s throw from the border.”
The administration would be under the Defense Ministry, with the goal of facilitating Trump’s plan to build a “Riviera of the Middle East” and the relocation of hundreds of thousands of Gazans for rebuilding efforts.
“If we remove 5,000 a day, it will take a year,” Smotrich said. “The logistics are complex because you need to know who is going to which country. It’s a potential for historical change.”
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Defense Ministry: 16,000 Wounded in War, About Half Under 30
A general view shows the plenum at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – The Knesset’s (Israeli parliament’s) Special Committee for Foreign Workers held a discussion on Sunday to examine the needs of wounded and disabled IDF soldiers and the response foreign caregivers could provide.
During the discussion, data from the Defense Minister revealed that the number of registered IDF wounded and disabled veterans rose from 62,000 to 78,000 since the war began on October 7, 2023. “Most of them are reservists and 51 percent of the wounded are up to 30 years old,” the ministry’s report said. The number will increase, the ministry assesses, as post-trauma cases emerge.
The committee chairwoman, Knesset member Etty Atiya (Likud), emphasized the need to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy for the wounded and to remove obstacles. “There is no dispute that the IDF disabled have sacrificed their bodies and souls for the people of Israel, for the state of Israel,” she said. Addressing the veterans, she continued: “And we, as public representatives and public servants alike, must do everything, but everything, to improve your lives in any way possible, to alleviate your pain and the distress of your family members who are no less affected than you.”
Currently, extensions are being given to the IDF veterans on a three-month basis, which Atiya said creates uncertainty and fear among the patients.
“The committee calls on the Interior Minister [Moshe Arbel] to approve as soon as possible the temporary order on our table, so that it will reach the approval of the Knesset,” she said, adding that she “intends to personally approach the Director General of the Population Authority [Shlomo Mor-Yosef] on the matter in order to promote a quick and stable solution.”
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Over 1,300 Killed in Syria as New Regime Accused of Massacring Civilians
Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad speaks during an interview with Sky News Arabia in Damascus, Syria in this handout picture released by the Syrian Presidency on August 8, 2023. Syrian Presidency/Handout via REUTERS
i24 News – Over 1,300 people were killed in two days of fighting in Syria between security forces under the new Syrian Islamist leaders and fighters from ousted president Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite sect on the other hand, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Sunday.
Since Thursday, 1,311 people had been killed, according to the Observatory, including 830 civilians, mainly Alawites, 231 Syrian government security personnel, and 250 Assad loyalists.
The intense fighting broke out late last week as the Alawite militias launched an offensive against the new government’s fighters in the coastal region of the country, prompting a massive deployment ordered by new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.
“We must preserve national unity and civil peace as much as possible and… we will be able to live together in this country,” al-Sharaa said, as quoted in the BBC.
The death toll represents the most severe escalations since Assad was ousted late last year, and is one of the most costly in terms of human lives since the civil war began in 2011.
The counter-offensive launched by al-Sharaa’s forces was marked by reported revenge killings and atrocities in the Latakia region, a stronghold of the Alawite minority in the country.
The post Over 1,300 Killed in Syria as New Regime Accused of Massacring Civilians first appeared on Algemeiner.com.