Gallant said to tell Netanyahu management of war directionless, goals need updating
Defense minister, reportedly facing imminent firing, sends missive arguing for strategic reassessment; PM’s office calls the letter ‘bizarre’
Hours before Israel struck Iran over the weekend, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant sent a harshly-worded missive to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning that Israel’s war efforts had become aimless and needed to be refocused given regional developments in the past year, Hebrew media reported Sunday.
News of the letter, reportedly also sent to most cabinet ministers and top officials from the military, Mossad spy agency and Shin Bet security service, came as a report emerged that Netanyahu had promised political allies he would jettison Gallant once Israel attacked Iran.
In the communique, Gallant argued that Israel was fighting according to an “outdated compass” and that Jerusalem needed to revise its official war aims initially set following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, according to Channel 13 news.
“Significant developments in the war, especially Israel and Iran trading direct blows, raise the necessity of holding a discussion and updating the war’s goals with a comprehensive look” at the areas of fighting and the interconnections between them, Gallant reportedly wrote.
While Israel initially set its war goals as the destruction of the Hamas terror group and the return of hostages taken during the onslaught of southern Israel over a year ago, the fighting has since expanded significantly due to attacks by Iranian proxies and Iran itself, with Israel saying it is actually fighting a seven-front war.
Israel updated its goals to include the return of northern residents to their homes before sharply intensifying attacks on the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon last month.
Gallant was said to advocate adding the following war aims: in the West Bank, “preventing an outbreak of violence by thwarting terrorism”; in Iran, “deterrence and keeping Iran out of the war”; and in Gaza, “establishing a reality with no military threat, preventing the growth of terror capabilities, return of all the hostages and promotion of an alternative to the Hamas government.”
Israel’s current war aims call for the destruction of Hamas’s governing capability, but not for active promotion of any alternative. Gallant has publicly assailed Netanyahu on that point, urging the premier to rule out Israeli governance of Gaza after the war. By contrast, the government’s far-right flank has advocated for Israeli resettlement of the Strip.
According to Channel 13, the letter was sent to all cabinet ministers save National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who has publicly advocated for Gallant’s removal from the post.
Netanyahu’s office called Gallant’s letter “bizarre” in a response to Channel 13.
“There is a single compass, and that is the war aims as determined by the cabinet,” said the office.
“They are examined all the time, and have even been recently expanded,” it added.
Gallant’s opposition to Israeli rule of Gaza, and his support for a hostage-ceasefire deal there, have put him at odds with the coalition’s far-right flank, further stressing already frayed ties within the cabinet.
According to a Sunday report by the Kan public broadcaster, Netanyahu had told ultra-Orthodox party leaders that he would fire Gallant after Israel attacked Iran.
Ultra-Orthodox members of the coalition have sparred with Gallant over his opposition to a legislative proposal that would allow thousands of ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students to opt out of military service, despite a manpower crunch in the army.
Ultra-Orthodox parties have threatened to topple the government if the exemption bill does not pass. The legislation is expected to be a main point of contention when the Knesset returns from its holiday recess on Monday.
The public broadcaster, which did not attribute the claim to a source, previously reported that Netanyahu was planning to replace Gallant with New Hope chairman Gideon Sa’ar, who has since joined the government as a minister without portfolio.
Kan quoted senior figures in the ultra-Orthodox parties as saying they “could work better” on the draft exemption bill with Sa’ar as defense minister.
According to Kan, Israel’s Saturday morning attack on Iran means Gallant’s days as defense minister are numbered.
Israeli jets struck military targets across Iran early Saturday in response to the Islamic Republic’s massive October 1 missile barrage, following weeks of Netanyahu vowing to hit back at Tehran, raising tensions in the region.
Israel stepped up operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon in late September and has also increasingly taken aim at Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels over drone attacks. It has also reportedly attacked Iranian proxies operating in Syria and Iraq, and has undertaken numerous counterterrorism operations in the West Bank to counter a surge in violence there.
