Ex-IDF chief Eisenkot urges Sa’ar not to take defense minister’s job, says he’s ‘not competent’ to do so amid war

Former IDF chief and war cabinet observer Gadi Eisenkot pleads with New Hope party leader Gideon Sa’ar not to go through with a reported deal under which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will fire Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and appoint Sa’ar to the post.

Eisenkot is a member of Benny Gantz’s National Unity party, which joined the emergency coalition last October and returned to the opposition in June. Sa’ar’s New Hope party was allied with National Unity from July 2022 to March 2024.

“I urge Gideon Sa’ar not to go along with Netanyahu’s cynical move at this difficult hour,” Eisenkot says in an interview on Kan Radio. “It will be remembered as an opportunistic gambit, designed by Netanyahu to solve a political problem [threatening his coalition] and [to legislate] the Draft Law,” he says, referencing Gallant’s refusal to advance legislation demanded by the ultra-Orthodox parties, and backed by Netanyahu, that would largely maintain the current situation in which most ultra-Orthodox men do not perform military or national service.

“It will take Gideon Sa’ar months to understand how the [defense] hierarchies function and how to utilize them. I’m stating that he is not competent to take the baton from Yoav Gallant and to be the defense minister of the IDF and the defense establishment in the current reality,” Eisenkot adds.

Sa’ar has no significant military background and has not held ministerial or Knesset committee posts with significant security responsibilities.

Another former IDF chief, Moshe Ya’alon, who also served as defense minister under Netanyahu and has become a leading critic of him, told Channel 12 earlier today that the move to fire Gallant and appoint Sa’ar is solely a function of Netanyahu’s efforts “to survive” in power.

It should be unthinkable “to switch the defense minister amid this chaotic situation,” Ya’alon said.

Ya’alon also said he opposed a major ground offensive in Lebanon, as currently weighed by the government. He said such an escalation would cost many lives and would end in an agreement that could be reached without resorting to a major offensive.