Netanyahu (left) and Galant (center) during a visit by the IDF Chief of Staff at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv and a meeting with Halevy (Government Press Office)

JERUSALEM – The sparring and shouting witnessed by the War Cabinet between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galant, who left the session angrily, reflected the deepening of relations and the crisis of confidence between them, which began to become clear with the establishment of Israel's 37th government on December 29, 2022.

The mutual shouting between Netanyahu and Galant in the session, which ended without resolutions, was only another stage of the acute tension between them during the war on Gaza, a tension that carries contentious accumulations and sediments over the power struggle and camps within the ruling Likud party even before the war.

The conflict carries with it political tension between Likud camps over who will succeed Netanyahu, who sees Galant as the military man who threatens his party throne and prime minister's chair.

Since the formation of the government, Netanyahu has limited Galant's powers and undermined his influence within Likud and the Israeli partisan scene by distributing the powers of the Defense Ministry to partners in Bezalel Smotrich's "religious Zionism" coalition by appointing him as a minister alongside Galant.

Galant (centre) refrains from field tours with Netanyahu during Gaza war (Government Press Office)

Hidden tension

Netanyahu stripped Galant of his powers and responsibility for the so-called Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) and the Civil Administration, transferring it to Smotrich, who is also finance minister, and transferred responsibility for Border Police teams in the West Bank and Jerusalem from Galant to Jewish Greatness chief Itamar Ben-Gvir, who was appointed Israel's national defense minister.

The hidden tension and behind-the-scenes conflict turned into a full-blown confrontation between them, as Netanyahu dismissed Galant from office in March 2023, due to Galant's stance in support of protests against the amendments to the judiciary, and his warning of the repercussions of the amendments in the Israeli army and reserve forces.

Under the weight of the protests, Netanyahu was forced to reverse the dismissal decision, but nothing was forgotten, as this dismissal continued to govern relations between them in the management of the government coalition.

Relations between Netanyahu and Galant expanded into a crisis of confidence as the prime minister sought to limit the defense minister's influence within the government, exemplified at the end of July 2023 when the Knesset passed the "Reasonableness Law" to limit the powers of the Supreme Court.

Ahead of the vote on the law, the defense minister begged Justice Minister Yariv Levin to stop or soften the wording of the law, but Netanyahu, who was sitting between the two, ignored Galant and gave the green light to the government coalition to vote on the law.

Galant was angry at the "passage of the law of reasonableness," and Israeli writer Shalom Yerushalmi says "and remains angry at Netanyahu's decision to give Smotrich a post of minister in the Defense Ministry," noting that Galant warned Netanyahu of the potential risks of such an appointment, but the prime minister did not take these warnings into account because he had no other choice.

Conflict

Yerushalmi said in his article for the Zaman Yisrael website that "the never-ending conflicts within the Defense Ministry — which have also affected the situation in the West Bank — show that Galant was right."

He added that these conflicts were fueled by the "Al-Aqsa flood" and Netanyahu's quest to evade responsibility and transfer it to Galant and Army Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi.

According to Yerushalmi, the tension between them turned into a state of conflict during the war in the Gaza Strip, pointing out that there are daily confrontations and disagreements between Netanyahu, Galant and their teams, which reflects the sediments of differences - both in the government and within the Likud - and the crisis of confidence between them.

The Israeli writer recalled the denial of Galant Shin Bet guards from entering Netanyahu's office, the complaint against Galant's chief of staff, who requested the recording of a security discussion, perhaps for the purposes of discussions in the government investigative committee that will be established, and the refusal more than once to come out with a joint briefing on the developments and progress of the war.

With the declaration of a state of emergency in Israel following the surprise attack by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) on October 7, 2023, tensions between Netanyahu and Galant reversed into a dispute over the goals of the war.

Gallant was pushing for a war on the northern fronts against Lebanon and the southern fronts against Gaza, and called for a preemptive strike on Hezbollah the day after the Al-Aqsa flood, but Netanyahu opposed and prevented it, and was hesitant even about the ground incursion into the Gaza Strip.

Seventh Front

Not only that, but Netanyahu was initially – according to analysts – opposed the formation of an emergency government and a war council, repeatedly postponed the formation of the emergency government and tried to obstruct it, and reserved Galant's participation in the press conference during which the formation of the war government was announced.

According to military affairs analyst Yossi Yehoshua in Ynet of Yedioth Ahronoth, the seventh front facing Israel is the war between Netanyahu and Galant, saying that "some describe the tensions between them as another arena, in addition to the arenas of Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Yemen and Iraq."

He explained that what he described as "ugly fighting" in the meeting of the war council between them is just one expression of the acute tension between the two, which dates back to the distant history before the war, pointing out that this tension could affect the progress of the various fronts fought by Israel, especially in light of the mutual criticism that came out into the open.

The military affairs analyst estimated that the prime minister, who does not trust Galant due to political and personal motives, also sought to isolate him from the course of the war, fearing cooperation between three generals he considers "hostile to him, not from today," namely Galant, National Camp chief Benny Gantz and former chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot.

Source : Al Jazeera