Israel’s defence minister hits out at Benjamin Netanyahu’s ‘indecision’
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Israel’s defence minister issued a rare rebuke of Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, accusing the prime minister of dithering over the future of post-war Gaza.
In a televised address, Yoav Gallant challenged Mr Netanyahu to rule out Israel taking permanent control of the Gaza Strip, as his hard-Right coalition partners have urged.
He called on the prime minister to take “tough decisions” to usher in a Palestinian-led government to offer an alternative to rule by Hamas.
“Indecision will erode the military gains (of the war)”, he said, adding that he had got no response from various decision-making forums on what Mr Netanyahu envisioned the future of the enclave to be.
The United States, Israel’s main ally, has long urged Mr Netanyahu to come up with a plan for the “day after” the war, but the prime minister has resisted offering clarity for fear it would see the defections from his precarious coalition from either the Right or the Left win.
Mr Gallant’s remarks came amid renewed heavy fighting in the north of Gaza, where the IDF says Hamas is regrouping in response to a power vacuum.
“The end of the military campaign must come together with political action. The ‘day after Hamas’ will only be achieved with Palestinian entities taking control of Gaza, accompanied by international actors, establishing a governing alternative to Hamas’s rule. This, above all, is an interest of the State of Israel,” Mr Gallant said.
He also went public with concerns that hard-Right voices are encouraging Mr Netanyahu to occupy Gaza, something he described as a “negative and dangerous option” for Israel’s long-term security.
“We have to make tough decisions: advancing the national interest over all other interests, even if this requires paying personal or political costs,” he said in a clear reference to Mr Netanyahu’s fence-sitting.
Mr Netanyahu promptly responded with a video message, saying he is unwilling to “replace Hamas with Fatahistan”, referring to the West Bank’s ruling Fatah party.
He brushed off the challenge to act on the future of Gaza, saying that “as long as Hamas remains, no other actor else will run Gaza – certainly not the Palestinian Authority (PA)”.
US backs Palestinian Authority role
The United States has proposed that some form of the PA eventually take control of Gaza. Mr Gallant’s intervention essentially challenged Mr Netanyahu to choose between Israel’s major ally or the country’s most hardline politicians.
Antony Blinken, the United States secretary of state, early on Wednesday called for a “clear and concrete plan for the future of Gaza” as he argued “we cannot have a vacuum in Gaza that’s likely to be filled by chaos”.
Divisions on the issue of a post-war Gaza in the government were laid bare on Wednesday evening as prominent Hard-right voices lashed out at Mr Gallant for being unpatriotic.
Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, called the cabinet to hold a vote to prevent the PA from getting involved in Gaza and fire Mr Gallant if he disagrees.
“Defense Minister Gallant today announced his support for the establishment of a Palestinian terrorist state as a reward for terrorism and Hamas for the most terrible massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” Mr Smotrich said in a video message on Twitter as he warned against the move that “would endanger the existence of the State of Israel”.
Mr Smotrich’s ally Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, called for the defence minister’s resignation.
