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Netanyahu fires defense minister who called for a stop to Israel’s judiciary reforms
(JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, exactly a day after Gallant called for a stop to radical reforms to the judiciary that have divided the country and that the defense minister said posed security risks to Israel.
The dramatic move could accelerate a crisis that Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, who has also called for a stop to the legislation, has said could culminate in a bloody civil war. It could also further fray ties with the United States, where Gallant has been steering coordination on defense cooperation with his U.S. counterpart, Lloyd Austin.
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided, this evening (Sunday, 26 March 2023), to dismiss Defense Minister Yoav Gallant,” Netanyahu’s office said in a single sentence just after 9 p.m.
“The security of Israel always has been and always will be my life’s mission,” Gallant, a decorated general, said in a statement.
In a surprise address late Saturday, Gallant had called for a pause to the judiciary reforms, saying that the divisions they were sowing among Israelis were making the country vulnerable to security threats, including from Iran, Palestinian terrorists and Hezbollah, the terrorist movement in Lebanon.
The firing comes at a potentially vulnerable moment, as the month-long Muslim holiday of Ramadan begins and less than two weeks before Passover. The coincidence of the two has in the past spurred tensions and led to violence.
“This is an insane act. This man is leading us to the destruction of the Third Temple,” Avigdor Liberman, one of coterie of onetime confidants of Netanyahu who turned against him and joined or established opposition parties, told the Israeli government broadcaster, Kan, about the prime minister. “This man is dismantling the entire defense infrastructure.”
Israeli media said Netanyahu was especially furious for two reasons: Gallant delivered his address while Netanyahu was in London, and did not give Netanyahu advance notice; and Gallant had made clear he would vote against the first major reform, which is due to come to a final vote on Monday.
The vote Monday will be on a law that would drastically reduce the influence of the courts in naming judges, and reserve it almost entirely for the governing coalition. Another law Netanyahu hopes to pass soon would effectively gut the power of the Supreme Court to review legislation.
The court is seen as a bulwark defending the rights of vulnerable populations, including women, the LGBTQ community, Arabs and non-Orthodox Jews.
Gallant’s speech Saturday night had laid bare divisions within Netanyahu’s Likud party. Two other Likud lawmakers immediately echoed his call for the legislative process to be suspended until the end of April and for talks with the opposition. It was not clear whether the two, Yuri Edelstein and David Bitan, would vote against the judiciary appointments law on Monday. If they do, that would give Netanyahu a bare minimum majority of 61; a single further defection would stop the legislation.
There had been speculation that Avi Dichter, like Gallant, a veteran of the security establishment, would join Gallant. Now, the media is reporting that Netanyahu planned to ask Dichter, the agriculture minister, to replace Gallant, a signal that Netanyahu believes he has won over Dichter.
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The post Netanyahu fires defense minister who called for a stop to Israel’s judiciary reforms appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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NATO Should Launch Operation to Boost Security in Arctic, Belgian Minister says
Belgian Defence Minister Theo Francken speaks to journalists as he arrives to an informal meeting of European Union defence ministers in Copenhagen, Denmark, August 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Tom Little
NATO should launch an operation in the Arctic to address US security concerns, Belgium’s defense minister told Reuters on Sunday, urging transatlantic unity amid growing European unease about US President Donald Trump’s push to take control of Greenland.
“We have to collaborate, work together and show strength and unity,” Theo Francken said in a phone interview, adding that there is a need for “a NATO operation in the high north.”
Trump said on Friday that the US needs to own Greenland to prevent Russia or China from occupying it in the future.
European officials have been discussing ways to ease US concerns about security around Greenland, an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark.
Francken suggested NATO’s Baltic Sentry and Eastern Sentry operations, which combine forces from different countries with drones, sensors and other technology to monitor land and sea, as possible models for an “Arctic Sentry.”
He acknowledged Greenland‘s strategic importance but said “I think that we need to sort this out like friends and allies, like we always do.”
A NATO spokesperson said on Friday that alliance chief Mark Rutte spoke with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio about the importance of the Arctic for shared security and how NATO is working to enhance its capabilities in the high north.
Denmark and Greenland‘s leaders have said that the Arctic island could not be annexed and international security did not justify such a move.
The US already has a military presence on the island under a 1951 agreement.
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IDF Strikes Hezbollah Weapons Sites in Lebanon After Army Denied Its Existence
Israeli strikes targeting Hezbollah’s terror infrastructure. Photo: Via i23, Photo from social media used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law.
i24 News – The Israel Defense Forces carried out airstrikes on a site in southern Lebanon that the Lebanese Army had previously declared free of Hezbollah activity, Israeli officials said on Sunday, citing fresh intelligence that contradicted Beirut’s assessment.
According to Israeli sources, the targeted location in the Kfar Hatta area contained significant Hezbollah weapons infrastructure, despite earlier inspections by the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) that concluded no military installations were present.
Lebanese officials had conveyed those findings to international monitoring mechanisms, and similar claims were reported in the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar.
Israeli intelligence assessments, however, determined that Hezbollah continued to operate from the site.
During a second wave of strikes carried out Sunday, the IDF attacked and destroyed the location.
Video footage released afterward showed secondary explosions, which Israeli officials said were consistent with stored weapons or munitions at the site.
The IDF stated that the strike was conducted in response to what it described as Hezbollah’s ongoing violations of ceasefire understandings between Israel and Lebanon. Military officials said the targeted structure included underground facilities used for weapons storage.
According to the IDF, the same site had been struck roughly a week earlier after Israel alerted the Lebanese Army to what it described as active terrorist infrastructure in the area. While the LAF conducted an inspection following the warning, Israeli officials said the weapons facilities were not fully dismantled, prompting Sunday’s follow-up strike.
The IDF said it took measures ahead of the attack to reduce the risk to civilians, including issuing advance warnings to residents in the surrounding area.
“Hezbollah’s activity at these sites constitutes a clear violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon and poses a direct threat to the State of Israel,” the military said in a statement.
Israeli officials emphasized that operations against Hezbollah infrastructure would continue as long as such threats persist, underscoring that Israel retains the right to act independently based on its own intelligence assessments.
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Some US Senators Skeptical About Military Options for Iran
Demonstrators and activists rally in support of nationwide protests in Iran, outside the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 10, 2026. REUTERS/Tom Brenner
Some US lawmakers in both major parties on Sunday questioned whether military action against Iran is the best approach for the United States as Iranian authorities face growing turmoil.
US President Donald Trump in recent days has left open the possibility of American intervention in Iran, where the biggest anti-government protests in years have led to the Revolutionary Guards blaming unrest on terrorists and vowing to safeguard the governing system.
But at least two US senators sounded notes of caution during interviews on TV networks’ Sunday morning programs.
“I don’t know that bombing Iran will have the effect that is intended,” Republican Senator Rand Paul said on ABC News’ “This Week” show.
Rather than undermining the regime, a military attack on Iran could rally the people against an outside enemy, Paul and Democratic Senator Mark Warner said.
Warner, appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” warned that a military strike against Iran could risk uniting Iranians against the United States “in a way that the regime has not been able to.” History shows the dangers of US intervention, said Warner, who argued that the US-backed 1953 overthrow of Iran’s government set in motion a chain of events that gradually led to the rise of the country’s Islamic regime in the late 1970s.
The Wall Street Journal on Sunday reported that US military and diplomatic officials will brief Trump on Tuesday about options for Iran, including cyberattacks and potential military action.
Iran has said it will target US military bases if the United States launches an attack. But Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who has often touted a muscular approach to foreign policy, said Trump “needs to embolden the protesters and scare the hell out of the [Iranian] regime.”
“If I were you, Mr. President, I would kill the leadership that are killing the people,” Graham said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” show. “You’ve got to end this.”
Reza Pahlavi, the US-based son of the Iranian shah who was ousted in 1979, said on Sunday he is prepared to return to Iran to lead a shift to a democratic government.
“I’m already planning on that,” Pahlavi said on “Sunday Morning Futures.” “My job is to lead this transition to make sure that no stone is left unturned, that in full transparency, people have an opportunity to elect their leaders freely and to decide their own future.”