Former defence minister Yoav Gallant resigns from Knesset
Gallant has vowed to remain in the Likud party, and indicated he could attempt a leadership run in the future, saying his ‘journey is not yet complete’.
(The Times of Israel) Less than two months after being dismissed as defence minister, MK Yoav Gallant resigned from the Knesset on Wednesday evening, attacking the current government for undermining the security of the country even while insisting that he will remain a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party.
In an announcement carried live on Israeli television, the senior Likud lawmaker recalled his decades of military and political service and took credit for destroying Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran’s military capabilities — while also stating that he takes responsibility, as the former defence minister, for the lead up to the October 7, 2023, Hamas assault and the current war.
Gallant noted that he had spent “35 years in the Israel Defence Forces, a decade as a member of Knesset and minister in Israeli governments, including two dramatic years as defence minister.”
“As a member of the Likud movement, I will continue to fight for the movement’s path,” he pledged indicating this was not the end of his political career and he would likely return to challenge for the party leadership.
“My path is the Likud path, and I believe in its principles, trust its members and voters. Since I voted for the Likud party for the first time in my life and was a partner in Menachem Begin’s revolution, I have remained loyal to the movement’s national and ideological path,” he said.
The straight-talking Gallant accused Netanyahu and his replacement as defence chief Israel Katz of endangering the security of the country by backing a law that would codify military exemptions for much of the ultra-Orthodox community.
He said he was dismissed as defence minister this November because he refused to capitulate on the issue and said he would not be a partner to Netanyahu and Katz’s efforts, charging that the enlistment of the ultra-Orthodox was a “military necessity.”
Gallant asserted that while he still believes in the path and values of the Likud party, the government’s judicial overhaul was a “clear and immediate danger” to the country and noted that he had warned of this before the October 7 attacks.
Gallant also criticised the government for failing to bring back the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, saying there could be no victory until they were home.
Katz recently stated that he supports enlisting half of eligible Haredi draftees while the rest continue studying in yeshivas. According to Kan, Netanyahu is currently working on a new enlistment outline in an attempt to satisfy ultra-Orthodox demands. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told the public broadcaster on Wednesday morning that within two years there would be around 10,000 Haredim in the IDF. More than 60,000 Haredim aged 18-27 are eligible to be drafted today.
“As on the battlefield, so too in public service, there are moments when you have to stop to assess the situation and choose the course of action,” Gallant declared — noting that his “journey is not yet complete.”
Analysts said it was likely that Gallant would try and challenge for the leadership of the Likud party in the next primaries, but noted that the current ideological makeup of the party was far removed from the liberal ideals that Gallant harked back to in his speech.
Following his address, Gallant presented his letter of resignation to Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana.
Netanyahu and Gallant had frequently clashed since the government took power at the end of 2022, with the prime minister initially firing him in March 2023 — after he had warned of the security dangers stemming from the national rift over the judicial overhaul — only to reverse the move amid intense public objection.
Since his dismissal by Netanyahu on November 5, Gallant has been absent from numerous votes important to the coalition, including on Tuesday evening when Netanyahu was forced to leave his hospital bed post-surgery to ensure the passage of an important budget-related bill in the face of a revolt by some of his far-right and ultra-Orthodox coalition partners.
Gallant is widely expected to be replaced in the Knesset by Abed Afif, a representative of the Druze minority who received the 44th spot on the Likud list in the 2022 Knesset election and would become the only Druze lawmaker in the governing coalition.
In a tweet, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid described Gallant’s resignation speech as “the simple truth” and stated that he had been fired so that the coalition could “pass a disgraceful draft evasion and insubordination law that is a betrayal of our fighters, our dead, and our wounded.”
Gallant’s resignation sparked speculation in some corners that passing the bill enshrining ultra-Orthodox military exemptions would now be easier, due to the fact that he was one of the major opponents of the measure from the coalition.
Following his speech, National Unity chairman Benny Gantz, a former defence minister who had served as a member of the now-defunct war cabinet before quitting the coalition in June, called on Gallant to reconsider leaving the Knesset.
“As long as the government has not gone to elections… you must show the same courage you have always shown, remain in the Knesset, and act according to the dictates of your conscience. Do not lend a hand to passing the evasion law during wartime,” Gantz posted on X.
Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman, another former defence minister, sounded a similar note, urging Gallant to delay his resignation until after the enlistment bill comes up for its second and third readings in the hope that it could yet be thwarted.
Resigning now “is like deserting the battlefield in the midst of the war and giving another voice to supporters of evasion,” Liberman argued.
Preempting his own ousting from Likud?
According to some reports, Gallant may have resigned to preempt his own Likud party from declaring him a renegade and ousting him from the party, preventing him from running on its list in the future, with the Ynet news site stating that coalition whip Ofir Katz had begun putting together his case for the senior lawmaker’s dismissal.
In a post on X, Likud MK Avichay Buaron declared that Gallant knew that if he had not resigned on Wednesday, “the Likud faction would declare him retired.”
Since being fired, Buaron wrote, Gallant’s conduct has sent the message, “I am not committed to the Likud and the coalition. Even when it means getting the prime minister out of his sickbed.” Buaron said that “Gallant should leave both the Knesset and the Likud.” He further claimed to have “received broad support” for efforts to oust Gallant in light of his decision to skip Tuesday’s plenum session in the Knesset.
A Likud spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Buaron was joined in his criticism of Gallant by fellow Likud MKs Tally Gotliv and Moshe Saada.
Gallant was “a weak defence minister” who “undermined the prime minister at every opportunity and conducted an independent policy even vis-à-vis the American administration, as if you were the prime minister yourself,” Saada claimed in a post on X.
“All the other arguments you made tonight are nothing more than the opening of your campaign to lead the left wing bloc in the next elections.”
Gotliv was even harsher, accusing Gallant of defeatism, of leaking information to the Biden administration, of seeking “to end the war before all its goals were achieved” and of colluding with Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein “to prevent the enactment of a balanced draft law… in order to bring about the collapse of the Netanyahu government.”
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