From the Liveblog of
Thursday, May 2, 2024
Fuming over planned military appointments, Ben Gvir urges PM to fire Gallant
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir calls on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to fire Defense Minister Yoav Gallant after the army announces a series of senior appointments — including the replacement of outgoing military intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, who resigned over his role in the failures that led to the Hamas terror group’s October 7 onslaught.
Gallant was one of those responsible for the government’s mistaken security conception prior to October 7, Ben Gvir tweets, arguing that he “does not have a mandate to approve the appointments of generals and design the next general staff of the IDF.”
“This has nothing to do with the identity of the appointed officers, some of whom may be very worthy, but with Gallant’s very decision to continue as if the biggest failure in the country’s history had not happened under his responsibility as Minister of Defense,” Ben Gvir says, arguing that Gallant is “not fit to continue serving as Defense Minister.”
Netanyahu announced he was firing Gallant last March over his criticism of the government’s judicial overhaul — before reversing course two weeks later.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also slammed the appointments, saying in a video statement that “regardless of the identity of the officers, the appointments of IDF major generals who will lead the correction of the army after the failures, cannot be made by the chief of staff whose name is signed on the military failures.”
“It’s not legitimate. That’s not how things are fixed. This is not how trust is restored,” he said.
