The four leaders of the major opposition parties, Yair Lapid, Benny Gantz, Avigdor Lieberman, and Yair Golan, held a press conference on Wednesday at the Knesset in response to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s dismissal of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Tuesday evening.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid spoke first, stating: “The dismissal of Defense Minister Gallant yesterday is an act of insanity by an unfit prime minister.”

Lapid continued by claiming that Netanyahu’s dismissal of Gallant amid a war was not carried out due to professional reasons but for political reasons – “only because he impeded Netanyahu from passing the recruitment exemption laws [for Chareidim].”

Lapid made his claim despite the fact that it is well-known that Netanyahu wanted to fire Gallant as soon as he began publicly defying him during the pre-October 7 days at the height of the protests against the planned judicial reform laws. In fact, Netanyahu carried out his threat, firing Gallant in March 2023 and then relenting after the leftists held mass protests, sending Israel into chaos.

In September, Netanyahu was about to fire Gallant but refrained from doing so when it became clear that Israel was about to carry out the “exploding pagers” operation in Lebanon.

Gantz and Lieberman made similar claims and Golan called for a civil rebellion against the government in his speech.

The Likud party quickly responded to the opposition by stating: “When the left, led by Golan, Lapid, and Gantz along with Lieberman, stands by Gallant – it says it all. Just two years ago, all four established a government together with the Muslim Brotherhood party and made a surrender agreement with Hezbollah – and they dare to talk about security?”

“Just a few months ago, Lieberman mocked Gallant and said, ‘We don’t have a Defense Minister, we have a Minister of Threats,’ and two months ago, Gantz determined that Gallant must resign. Prime Minister Netanyahu, along with the new Defense Minister, Yisrael Katz, will lead Israel to total victory. They will keep complaining and we will continue to win.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)