From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, November 5, 2024
US caught off-guard by firing of Gallant on Election Day, defense minister was main conduit to Biden administration
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to fire Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on the day of the US presidential election indicates that he was trying to avoid blowback from the Biden administration whose focus is currently elsewhere, a US official tells The Times of Israel.
The Biden administration was caught off guard by the decision and is still working to gather more information, the US official says.
When Netanyahu fired Gallant for the first time in March 2023 over the defense minister’s opposition to the premier’s effort to overhaul the country’s judiciary, the White House expressed its “deep concern,” adding that the political upheaval underscored the need for compromise between the various factions in the Knesset on the issue of legal reform.
Netanyahu ended up walking back his decision to fire Gallant following massive public opposition to the move.
The White House has yet to formally weigh in on the latest firing, which was announced an hour ago. While State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller would likely have been asked to comment on Gallant’s ouster during his daily press briefing, he is not holding one today.
Given that Washington’s criticism of Gallant’s first firing focused on the importance of Netanyahu maintaining a broad consensus while implementing far-reaching policies, that could well be the same line that the Biden administration uses this time around, as Netanyahu seeks to continue prosecuting the war in Gaza with a cabinet that has lost its most moderate voice in Gallant and is now dominated by much more hawkish members who have largely rejected the concessions proposed in exchange for a hostage deal.
Gallant was the cabinet member who maintained the most frequent contact with a senior Biden administration official, holding nearly 100 calls with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin since the beginning of the war.
While there were periodic disagreements, Biden officials saw Gallant as a voice of reason within the Israeli government who understood that Israel’s continued prosecution of its war against Hamas was dependent on it being able to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians.
