Israel is in the middle of several military conflicts; In addition to the campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, there are also bitter battles with the Hezbollah militias in Lebanon. It is precisely in this commotion that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fires Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Netanyahu’s office said the reason for this was that there were too many disagreements between the two politicians over the Israeli conduct of the war. Confidence in Gallant has been ‘eroded’. Foreign Minister Israel Katz will become the new Defense Minister. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will in turn be taken over by Gideon Saar, head of the conservative New Hope party.
Netanyahu’s former rival becomes minister
From June 2021 to December 2022, Saar served as Israel’s Minister of Justice and Deputy Prime Minister in the cabinets of Prime Ministers Naftali Bennett and Jair Lapid. A member of the national-conservative Likud party, he was a member of the Knesset from 2003 to 2014, Israel’s Minister of Education from 2009 to 2013, and Minister of the Interior from 2013 to 2014. After a failed candidacy for president of the national-conservative Likud bloc, Saar founded the New Hope party in December 2020. He was once considered Netanyahu’s biggest rival in the Likud bloc.
Impressed by the October 7 Hamas massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, Saar initially joined Netanyahu’s right-wing religious government as part of an alliance. However, he resigned in March because Netanyahu failed to make him an active member of the war cabinet. At the end of September 2024, Saar joined the Prime Minister’s security cabinet as minister without portfolio.
Gallant said goodbye on internet platform X: “The security of the State of Israel will always remain the mission of my life.”
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
