By Ted Belman
Gallant gave him no choice.
Netanyahu is expected to appoint Min Avi Dicter to be the next Defense minister.
Hopefully Gallant will withdraw from the Knesset.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant this morning (Sunday) signed an order extending Avraham Yair Yared’s administrative detention by three months, hours after two IDF soldiers were wounded in a terrorist shooting attack in Huwara,
And hopefully Dicter will release him from detention.
@Sebastien
It is a fair question. To be honest, it is a hard thing to judge what a man will do when you place him in the seat of power such as the DM, and I was more than shocked by Gallant’s dedication to disappointing me following his appointment, just as an obvious example of this fact. In any event, I am not the one to ask. I would think that Ted or Bear might be better able to answer this question, and I am curious what the answer might be.
I do believe there is a great deal of concern with regards to many in the Israeli military high command identifying too closely with their American counterparts such that men such as Gantz and Gallant are the result. Gen. Hacohen touched upon this subject in an interview with Glick about 6-7 months ago. It is no small problem, and raises the bar for whoever comes next to prove that he is cut from a Zionist cloth and not from something cross-stitched with USA on it. Israel needs to exercise an Israel First agenda in the coming years, and having a DM to currently support this objective is a vitally important requirement for this to be achieved.
@Peloni Can you think of anyone in Likud like that?
@Sebastien
I think that is a fine suggestion, but it is very unlikely that Bibi will gift this position to someone outside of Likud. The DM was apportioned to Likud during the negotiations, and it will likely remain there to satisfy the Likudniks that they are maintaining a fair share of the ministries – politics is what it is.
As to what took Bibi so long to terminate Gallant, I believe that Bibi held Gallant’s military record in high regard and hoped to maintain him in his position as DM to deal with the Iran issue, but he proved himself too reckless to the point of supporting the initiatives of the Left repeatedly without any regret of having done so – which you have done well to remind us in real time. In any event, when he openly challenged the PM on a policy which the PM just recently made his position clear, there was no way he could be maintained as DM. Honestly, it does seem as if he were purposefully challenging Bibi to remove him since the very hour of him obtaining control of the ministry. Glad to finally see the back of him, and hopefully his successor will be less of a Left leaning radical and more amenable to pursuing the policies of the Right, as you suggested, someone like Fogel would be well suited to the task.
He should appoint Otzma Yehudt MK and retired brigadier general, Zvika Fogel.
Why did he wait so long?