PM said to bar Mossad and Shin Bet heads from an operational meeting with Gallant
PMO denied earlier claim that defense minister was barred from meeting Mossad chief; new report says Shin Bet head also off limits, as Netanyahu’s apparent mistrust for Gallant grows
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly barred Mossad chief David Barnea and Shin Bet head Ronen Bar from participating in a recent meeting with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi to discuss military operations.
The Friday revelation from Channel 12 came four days after reports that Netanyahu was barring Gallant from meeting with Barnea without his presence, as the premier’s apparent mistrust for his defense minister grew, raising questions regarding potential security implications.
According to the latest report, Gallant, Barnea, Bar and Halevi were slated to hold an urgent discussion on military operations in the Israel-Hamas war that would be sent to Netanyahu for approval, but the prime minister prevented the Mossad and Shin Bet chiefs from participating.
While Netanyahu cannot prevent Gallant from meeting with senior military and security officials, both the Mossad and Shin Bet are under the direct authority of the Prime Minister’s Office.
Netanyahu’s office responded to the Channel 12 report, denying that the premier is blocking Barnea from attending meetings and insisting that the Mossad chief can participate in any sit-down that doesn’t conflict with his schedule.
“The war cabinet is the forum that will chart and determine policy regarding the hostages and the missing, with no exception,” the Prime Minister’s Office added, indicating that the meeting Netanyahu prevented had to do with the hostages.
But Channel 12, which didn’t cite a source, was adamant that the scheduled meeting was meant to deal with operational matters and not hostages, while noting the response from Netanyahu’s office omitted any reference to Bar and only mentioned Barnea.
The report comes after Channel 12 on Monday said Netanyahu has been preventing Gallant from meeting with Barnea to discuss efforts to secure the release of the hostages remaining in Gaza if he’s not also present.
On at least two occasions, Gallant had invited Barnea to attend meetings regarding the hostages and received messages from Netanyahu’s office that the premier disapproved, according to the Monday Channel 12 report.
According to the Ynet news site, Gallant had infuriated Netanyahu by requesting a briefing from Barnea upon the Mossad chief’s return from a secret trip to Paris to discuss a hostage deal, even before Barnea had updated the prime minister.
Gallant’s office did not respond to the reported claims.
The Prime Minister’s Office said in response to the Monday report that there were no such limitations on Gallant or Barnea, and that Barnea was free to meet Gallant so long as his schedule permitted it.
Then too, though, the PMO added that the war cabinet is the only body that “outlines policy and decides on the matter of the hostages and those missing,” adding that there “is no exception.”
Barnea was heavily involved in the temporary truce agreement brokered by Qatar last month that saw the release of 105 civilian hostages, mostly Israeli women and children, alongside an Israeli-Russian man, Thai nationals and one Filipino national. There are believed to be 129 hostages kidnapped on October 7 — not all of whom are alive — still being held in Gaza, and talks have been picking up in recent days at potentially reaching a renewed deal.
While publicly, Gallant and Netanyahu have professed to be working in lockstep during the ongoing war, cracks in the relationship between the men have still been on display on a handful of occasions.
Reports have indicated that Gallant pressed heavily to have the IDF launch a major campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon at the outset of the war, but that Netanyahu opposed and ultimately thwarted the idea.
At the beginning of the month, the pair held separate press conferences minutes apart in the same building in Tel Aviv despite holding joint press availabilities several times both before and afterward.
Asked about it at the time, Netanyahu replied: “I suggested to the defense minister tonight to hold a joint press conference. He decided what he decided.” Gallant’s office responded at the time that “sometimes we hold press conferences together and sometimes separately.”
Netanyahu infamously fired Gallant earlier this year after the defense minister expressed public disapproval of the government’s rush to pass contentious judicial overhaul legislation. The firing set off an uproar among the public, including unprecedented spontaneous mass protests and disorder, and the prime minister quietly retracted the firing, leaving Gallant in his post.
