Gallant and Netanyahu: Thick as Thieves but still quarrelling!
Likud lawmakers expressed shock at Gallant's statement and called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to fire the defense minister.
www.jpost.com
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's talk of "total victory" over Hamas is "nonsense," Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said during a classified meeting with the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in Tel Aviv on Monday, according to Likud MK
Tally Gotliv, who was present at the meeting.
Gotliv said she was "shocked" by Gallant's statement and
called on the prime minister to fire him.
Gallant's comment came as part of his argument in favor of a hostage deal. According to a defense ministry statement, Gallant said to the committee members that recent military successes had opened the window for a hostage deal, whose prices the defense system could live with. Gallant reportedly said that Israel was "at a crossroads" between a deal to return the
hostages, a ceasefire in Gaza and lowering the flames on the northern front, versus continuing to pound Hamas but without receiving the hostages, and then full out war against Hezbollah and possibly Iran.
Gallant said he supported the second option. Israel's security system also widely holds this view. According to Gallant, the prime minister's "total victory" slogan was a "beating of war drums" not backed up by actions, indicating his criticism of Netanyahu as well as of far-right ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, both of whom have called for all-out war, including an invasion of Lebanon.