From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, September 17, 2024
Gantz says Netanyahu plot to fire Gallant ‘endangers Israel’s security’
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 Unity chairman Benny Gantz accuses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of “security recklessness” following reports that he is close to replacing Defense Minister Yoav Gallant with New Hope chairman Gideon Sa’ar.
In remarks at a conference on Tuesday morning, Gantz slams the reported deal between Netanyahu and Sa’ar, alleging that “what Netanyahu is doing at the moment endangers Israel’s security in the most tangible way that I can remember having been done by a prime minister during a war — and in general.”
Swapping out the minister of defense ahead of a possible campaign in the north that has the possibility of spreading into a regional conflagration constitutes “security recklessness” and doing so “in order to promote a law that would enshrine an exemption from conscription is also moral abandonment,” he says — noting that “human lives and the future of the nation are at stake.
“This is the painful dictionary definition of petty politics, at the expense of national security. When we joined the emergency government, we put politics aside for the sake of the war, and now Netanyahu and Sa’ar are putting the war aside, for the sake of politics.”
Gantz also criticizes the government over its announcement that the security cabinet has updated its official goals for the ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza to include a fourth objective: “The safe return of the residents of the north to their homes.”
This move is “half a year late” but “better late than never,” Gantz states.
