Israeli media continues to highlight the escalating rift between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, which analysts say is creating a security and existential threat to Israel.
Channel 13 of Israel discussed the recent crisis of Gallant’s withdrawal from a war council meeting, where the channel’s correspondent Moria Walberg reported that the head of the National Security Council, Tzachi Hanegbi, asked the Defense Minister’s office director to leave the meeting. Citing that Gallant refused to accept this and left with his aides after attacking Netanyahu and Hanegbi.
Walberg stated that Gallant demanded Netanyahu and Hanegbi stop obstructing his work, describing it as “evidence of the tension between the Prime Minister and the Defense Minister.”
“This tension had started long before October 7, but it has been increasingly mounting these days more than ever,” she added.
During a debate on the same channel, journalist Ariel Kahana from the “Israel Today” newspaper said that the war council had recently witnessed an unpleasant situation, confirming that “this is not the first time, we know that there have been accumulations and tensions between the two men.”
“While we are on the hundredth day of the war, the war council is considered a treasure for Israel, and both men should act like adults,” Kahana continued. “Try to rise above the personal differences between you, and maintain this council for the victory and for the people of Israel.”
Former Defense Minister and head of the “Israel Our Home” party Avigdor Lieberman said he “had never witnessed an event like this where a defense minister leaves the war council during battles.”
Lieberman stated, “When I follow the discussions, I find that what is happening sends two messages about a war among Jews to both Hassan Nasrallah (the Secretary-General of the Lebanese Hezbollah) and Yahya Sinwar (the leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement – Hamas inside), adding, “This is not how wars are managed.”
A Security and Existential Danger
In the same context, former Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi said, “Do not give the enemy a chance to harm us again because of the absence of unity,” adding, “All those who follow the path of division – and at their forefront influential and publicly elected individuals – undermine the principle of unity and create a security and existential threat.”
Commenting on this dispute, Yaron Abraham on Channel 12 mentioned that there is tension between the political elite because of stopping the war or continuing it, and the way to recover the captured (prisoners).
He added that “the state has identified these two goals as a single and equal package in the last three months,” while the channel confirmed that “after many quarrels in the closed rooms, the tension between the Likud and the official camp inside the Knesset has exploded.”
