A report by Israeli Channel 12 revealed that Gallant was scheduled to hold an urgent meeting with Army Chief of Staff Herzi Halevy, Mossad chief David Barnea, and Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, regarding military operations and the war with Hamas, where his results were scheduled to be sent to Netanyahu for approval. However, the Prime Minister intervened to prevent the meeting from taking place.
Observers and specialists in Israeli affairs believe, in an interview with Sky News Arabia, that the differences between Netanyahu and the army leaders are not the result of the war, but that the October 7 attacks deepened them after the Prime Minister held the security institutions responsible for what happened, in addition to his intervention in preventing many of the attacks. Joint meetings between the leaders of the security services, and the implementation of some policies that aroused their anger.
Details of the crisis
- Channel 12 explained that the discussion between Gallant and the heads of Mossad and Shin Bet was “wartime operations, and was supposed to be presented to obtain the prime minister’s approval.”
- While Netanyahu cannot prevent Gallant from meeting with senior military and security officials, both Mossad and Shin Bet are under the authority of the Prime Minister's Office.
- The Israeli Prime Minister's Office commented on the report by saying, “Netanyahu does not impose restrictions on the head of the Mossad. He can come to any discussion that is subject to his responsibility, but the Military Ministerial Council is the body that formulates policies and decides on the matter of prisoners and missing persons.”
- Netanyahu's office thus hinted that the four-way meeting was scheduled to discuss an issue related to the issue of the kidnapped Israelis.
- The report stated that the decision to abort the meeting “comes in light of the worsening differences between Netanyahu and Gallant.”
- In the same vein, the Times of Israel newspaper considered that this decision comes 4 days after reports of a similar meeting between the Minister of Defense and the Director of the Mossad that was scheduled to address discussions regarding the “day after” the war, and Netanyahu intervened to prevent it as well, with a growing feeling of impossibility. The Prime Minister's apparent confidence in his Defense Minister, raising questions about the potential security implications.
- According to the Israeli website “Ynet”, Gallant angered Netanyahu a few days ago after the Defense Minister requested a briefing from the head of the Mossad upon his return from a secret trip to Paris to discuss the hostage deal, even before he informed the Prime Minister.
War crisis
For his part, former US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Middle East Affairs, Mike Mulroy, said in an interview with Sky News Arabia that after the October 7 attacks, Israel established the so-called war government that brings together senior leaders of the opposition political parties, and this included Benny Gantz. He is a former general in the Israeli army.
Mulroy explained that there is a current division in the War Council regarding the course of operations in Gaza. There are those who want to move to a new phase of operations, while the Minister of Defense calls for the continuation of the high-intensity phase for several more months, continuing: “I think that the Israeli army is in the middle of the views.” .
Mulroy, who previously worked for the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), pointed out that the most prominent main points of disagreement between Netanyahu and the army leaders is currently how to move to the second phase of the war.
The American researcher specializing in national security affairs, Scott Morgan, also believes in his statement to Sky News Arabia that Netanyahu’s political future depends on the outcome of the current war, and therefore one of the main issues of the current dispute is that the Prime Minister wants to shift the blame for the 7/7 attack. October to the army leaders and their unwillingness to prevent it, and thus emerges unscathed even after the end of military operations.
He added: “Of course, politicians have many actions and statements that make the military leadership fed up,” considering that the matter will escalate if the disagreements between Netanyahu and Gallant continue as is the case currently.
Criticism and confusion
For his part, the academic and analyst specializing in Israeli affairs, Ahmed Fouad Anwar, said in statements to Sky News Arabia that there has been an exchange of accusations between the political and military levels in Israel since October 7, and it has appeared publicly in many situations, raising many questions. Concerning the future of their relationship and its impact on the level of war.
Anwar said that there is an insistence on the part of Netanyahu that the army is not prepared, and this is represented in the failure to achieve strategic achievements represented in defeating Hamas and the Palestinian resistance, arresting one of the movement’s leaders, liberating detainees and prisoners, or stopping the missile attacks.
He explained that as deaths continued to fall among the ranks of the Israeli army in both northern and southern Gaza, about 3 months after the start of the operations, Netanyahu’s son Yair appeared to distort the image of the army, the Minister of Defense and the Chief of Staff. In the same context, Netanyahu refused to meet the Chief of Staff twice, and insulted him by searching him under the pretext of Searching for recording devices and leaking them to the newspapers.
On the other hand, Anwar explained that the military level in Israel believes that Netanyahu’s government’s provocations against the Palestinians immediately after its formation is the reason for the current escalation, and that resuming fighting after the humanitarian truce and submitting impossible requests to mediators was a negative matter in light of the internal division and loss of confidence in Netanyahu’s policies, and in light of the crisis that The Israeli economy suffers from the continued international pressure to stop the fighting, and the lack of clarity regarding the future of the Gaza Strip after the war.
He pointed out that there are many former military leaders who unequivocally called for the necessity of the departure of the Netanyahu government, as it is politically responsible for what happened on October 7. They also support the army leaders against the Prime Minister, led by former Israeli Army Chief of Staff Dan Halutz and Israeli General Giora Eiland.
Halutz previously said that Israel lost the war against Hamas, and that the only victory that will be achieved is the overthrow of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling on opposition supporters to build an alliance against him.
How has the dispute gone since October 7?
- The Hebrew newspaper “Maariv” said that the dispute had escalated between Netanyahu and the Defense Minister since the seventh of last October, noting that there were old differences between them, but the war had deepened them.
- An analysis published by the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth concluded that Netanyahu prevented a decision on a pre-emptive operation in the north against Hezbollah, even though the Israeli army and the Defense Minister recommended carrying out this operation.
- In late October, the newspaper noted that there were disagreements between the Israeli Prime Minister and senior officials in the army regarding assessments, plans and decisions, considering that there was a “crisis of confidence” between the two sides and tense relations between Netanyahu and Gallant that “impede joint work.”
- Netanyahu published a blog post at the end of October, in which he held the heads of the Shin Bet and Military Intelligence responsible for the failure to monitor the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation launched by Hamas, before he was forced to delete it shortly after.
- Netanyahu was attacked by War Council member Benny Gantz and opposition leader Yair Lapid after his post, with Gantz saying: “When we are at war, the leadership must show responsibility.”
- The Israeli Prime Minister later apologized for that post, writing: “I made a mistake. I should not have written that post and apologized for it… I fully support all heads of security forces.”
- During his press conference, Netanyahu refused to bear any part of the responsibility for the failure, and evaded a question posed to him by a journalist in this regard, saying: “After the war ends, we must all provide answers to the difficult questions.”
- Netanyahu's son also sparked controversy and anger in Israel, after his attack on the army and the Supreme Court, as he shared posts blaming the Israeli army for the failure that occurred on October 7, when a surprise Hamas attack led to the deaths of 1,200 people and the taking of about 240 hostages.
- The “Brothers in Arms” organization affiliated with Israeli army reservists responded to Netanyahu's son's criticism, saying: “You have to wait for the facts. You embody arrogance and your father embodies obfuscation and guilt. The era of your malicious influence is over.”
- The absence of Defense Minister Gallant from several joint press conferences by the Prime Minister also raised questions about the differences, and at that time Netanyahu said that he proposed to Gallant to hold a joint press conference and he “chose what he chose,” in reference to his refusal in what appeared to be “disagreements between them.”
- At the beginning of this month, Israeli media revealed that guards in Netanyahu’s office asked to search the Army Chief of Staff, Herzi Halevy, as he entered the War Office in search of a recording device, at a time when Halevy “got angry and headed inside the room to those present, and expressed his dissatisfaction with the matter.” “.
- Recently, the differences between Netanyahu and the leaders of the security institutions reached the discussions the day after the war, as the army did not want to prevent these discussions in order to stop the fighting at the necessary time, but Netanyahu rejected this, which would lead to “shuffling the playing cards,” according to what the Channel 12 report stated. Israeli.
- Earlier this week, Israeli reports indicated that Netanyahu prevented Mossad chief David Barnea from meeting privately with Defense Minister Gallant to discuss the Hamas kidnappers file, while former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen criticized this matter.
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