Gallant: ‘Absolute victory’ slogan ‘gibberish’; Netanyahu slams his ‘anti-Israel narrative’
Citing decision not to launch early war on Lebanon, defense minister reportedly tells MKs in key Knesset panel that Netanyahu does not display courage in discussions
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday reportedly called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s promises of “absolute victory” in the ongoing war “gibberish” and questioning the premier’s courage to make tough decisions to achieve that aim.
Gallant’s comments were leaked to Hebrew media from a closed-door briefing of members of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
Netanyahu later clapped back at Gallant’s comments, declaring that the defense minister was bound by the promise of “absolute victory,” and charging that his remarks were “anti-Israel” and obstructed talks for a hostage deal.
Gallant responded hours later in a statement reiterating his commitment to the war’s aims and bemoaning the “unending” leaks from classified forums.
According to quotes leaked to Hebrew media, Likud MKs clashed with Gallant, asking him why Israel had not launched a war in Lebanon after 10 months of Hezbollah attacks in the north.
“The conditions today for a Lebanon war are the opposite of what they were at the beginning of the war,” Gallant told the lawmakers, explaining that he had supported a preemptive attack at the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war in October, but has since changed his mind, due to the evolving situation.
Israel reportedly had warplanes in the air ready to carry out a major preemptive strike against Hezbollah in Lebanon four days after Hamas’s October 7 terror onslaught, but US President Joe Biden managed to convince Netanyahu to stand down at the last minute. Gallant was said have been pushing hard for the attack to go ahead.
“I hear all the heroes with the war drums, ‘absolute victory,’ and all that gibberish. I saw that courage when it came down to the discussion,” he was quoted as saying, taking a jab at Netanyahu.
“I am not prepared for you to call the prime minister’s words ‘gibberish,'” Likud MK Tally Gotliv, a firebrand populist, reportedly said in response.
“I am prepared to debate with facts and action. I might be weak with media and politics, but on security, I know what I am talking about,” Gallant responded, according to the quotes.
After the meeting, Gotliv appealed to Netanyahu to fire Gallant and said the chair of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Yuli Edelstein told her to “calm down” when she tried to defend the prime minister against Gallant’s attack.
“When I asked difficult questions, which I will not detail (I will leave that for whoever is leaking), Yuli Edelstein suggested to Gallant to leave the meeting without responding,” she said, urging the prime minister to take action against the defense minister.
Gotliv also accused Gallant of responding, “I don’t work for you,” after Yisrael Beytenu MK Sharon Nir asked him a question during the meeting. Gotliv said she stepped in to defend Nir, at which point Gallant left the room five minutes before the meeting was scheduled to end.
Netanyahu fired Gallant in March 2023, after the defense minister warned about the danger to national security of rifts that he said were extending into the military over the government’s judicial overhaul plans. Amid public protests, Gallant was reinstated two weeks later.
Some members of the government have called on Netanyahu to fire Gallant again, criticizing his conduct in the ongoing war.
In his official statement after the meeting, Gallant said Israel has been bolstering its defenses in recent days amid an anticipated Iranian and Hezbollah attack on the country, as well as preparing potential attacks as a response, or preemptive actions if needed.
Regional tensions have spiraled after Iran vowed revenge for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31, which Israel has not confirmed or denied carrying out.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group, has also vowed a response after Israel killed its top military commander Fuad Shukr in an airstrike in Beirut several hours before Haniyeh’s assassination. Israel blamed Shukr for being behind many attacks on civilians, including a rocket strike last month that killed 12 children in a soccer field in Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights.
“We are in the days of vigilance and readiness, the threats from Tehran and Beirut may materialize and it is important to explain to everyone that readiness, preparedness, and vigilance are not synonyms for fear and panic,” Gallant said.
“In recent days, we have been devoting our time both to strengthening defenses and to creating offensive options in response, and also as an initiative if required, anywhere and in any region, with the main goal being the protection of the citizens of the State of Israel,” he added.
Also at the meeting, Gallant said he supports a hostage deal with Hamas, even if it is in multiple stages.
“It is our duty as decision-makers to strive to bring about the operational achievement, and… to create the conditions to return the hostages. The creation of the conditions comes through military pressure, and it can bring about a deal to [release] the hostages, even if it will be in more than one round,” he said.
Negotiations for a deal are set to resume on Thursday, but Hamas said on Sunday evening that it did not plan to send a delegation to the talks. It said it had asked mediators to present a plan based upon past negotiations, instead of engaging in new talks for a deal based on amended frameworks.
A short while after the Knesset meeting, the Prime Minister’s Office released a statement responding to the leaks about Gallant calling his rhetoric “gibberish” titled, “Gallant is bound by ‘absolute victory,’ too.”
“When Gallant adopts an anti-Israel narrative, he hurts the chances of reaching a hostage deal,” the statement read.
“He should have attacked [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar, who refuses to send a delegation to negotiations, and who was and remains the only obstacle to the hostage deal.”
The statement reiterated Netanyahu’s stance that Israel must achieve “absolute victory,” which the PMO said consists of the elimination of Hamas’s military and governance capabilities and the release of the remaining 111 hostages abducted on October 7.
“This is the clear directive of Prime Minister Netanyahu and the cabinet, and it is binding on everyone — including Gallant,” the statement concluded.
The defense minister said in a subsequent statement that “one of the blindspots that have emerged in the war, and against which we must act in the fullest severity, is the unending leaks from sensitive and classified forums.”
“Nor has this plague spared the discussion I held today with the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee,” said Gallant.
During the briefing with the Knesset members, he said, “I emphasized that I am resolved to achieve the war aims and keep on fighting until Hamas is dismantled and the hostages returned.”
