TV report says Netanyahu asked Gallant for a few days to try to resolve crisis surrounding judicial shakeup; minister said to caution refusal could spread to active duty personnel
During his much-publicized meeting with the prime minister Thursday, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned Benjamin Netanyahu that he will not vote in favor of the bill to assert political control over the country’s Judicial Selection Committee if it is brought to a vote next week in its present form, according to a Friday report.
Without citing sources, Channel 12 said Gallant cautioned that if the bill — a core tenet of the government’s judicial overhaul — is not amended or a compromise is not reached with the opposition in the coming days, he will not back the legislation, and will either abstain or actively vote against it.
The report said Gallant has no intention of resigning his post, despite his objections.
It said Netanyahu had asked the minister to give him a few days to try to resolve the burgeoning crisis, to which Gallant agreed.
Gallant is widely reported to have planned Thursday to hold a press conference in which he would have publicly called for a halt to the legislation, over his intense concerns over deep damage to the military’s cohesion as growing numbers of reservists warn they will not serve if Israel’s democracy is harmed.
Channel 12’s Nir Dvori said the minister presented a “very worrying” picture to the premier on the state of the military and Israel’s security situation, saying the threat of growing refusal was now no longer limited to reservists, but could spread to conscripts and career officers.
Gallant was said to have noted to the premier that dire forecasts by IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi on the deepening divisions within the country’s defensive force had so far proven true.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (center) speaks with IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi (left), chief of the Northern Command Ori Gordin (right), and commander of the 91st territorial division Shai Klapper (back to camera), at the Har Adir lookout point on the Lebanon border, March 16, 2023. (Elad Malka/Defense Ministry)
The New York Times reported on Friday that Halevi has warned government leaders that the army is on the verge of reducing the scope of certain operations due to the large number of reservists refusing to report for duty.
“I didn’t fold and I haven’t yet spoken out publicly,” the network quoted Gallant as saying, citing unidentified associates of the minister. “I’m prepared to take a bullet for the country.”
After word got out Thursday about Gallant’s planned press conference, and before he put it off, the minister was met with a torrent of criticism from other coalition members including members of Likud, who turned to social media to excoriate him for what they painted as a betrayal of right-wing voters and a capitulation to anti-government protesters. The far-right Otzma Yehudit party issued a direct broadside against Gallant, saying he had “removed himself from the right-wing camp” and was trying to cheat voters.
“Unlike others, I have not yet given up on my priorities,” Channel 12 cited Gallant as saying. “First the state, then the IDF. In my estimation, the prime minister’s inner circle has not internalized the grave security situation.”
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