Amid Netanyahu firing Gallant buzz, Israel Oppn, business leaders say his exit will harm security, economy

The Israeli Opposition and Israel’s Business Forum Prime Minister on Tuesday urged Benjamin Netanyahu not to go ahead with reported plans to fire Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, warning that it will further harm the security and economy of the country.

According to a Times of Israel report, accusing Netanyahu of “security recklessness”, the National Unity chairman Benny Gantz on Tuesday slammed the reported deal between Netanyahu and New Hope part head Gideon Sa’ar, alleging that “what Netanyahu is doing at the moment endangers Israel’s security in the most tangible way that I can remember having been done by a prime minister during a war — and in general.”

Gantz said swapping out the minister of defence ahead of a possible campaign in the north that has the possibility of spreading into a regional conflagration constitutes “security recklessness.”

“Doing so in order to promote a law that would enshrine an exemption from conscription is also moral abandonment,” he was quoted as saying, adding that “human lives and the future of the nation are at stake.”

“This is the painful dictionary definition of petty politics, at the expense of national security. When we joined the emergency government, we put politics aside for the sake of the war, and now Netanyahu and Sa’ar are putting the war aside, for the sake of politics,” Times of Israel quoted Gantz as saying.

Gantz also criticised the government for adding a fourth objective to the security cabinet’s goals for the ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza: “The safe return of residents in the north to their homes.”

This move is “half a year late” but “better late than never,” Gantz said.

Meanwhile, the Israel’s Business Forum, which consists of 200 heads of Israel’s largest companies that employ many private sector workers, said Netanyahu should stop “messing around with petty politics” during a war.

“It is clear that replacing the defense minister in exchange for a political deal regarding legislation that allows exclusion [of most ultra-Orthodox men] from military service, will exacerbate the gap in equally sharing the burden,” Times of Israel quoted the forum as saying in a statement.

“It will dramatically increase the frustration among the public who bear the burden of the (military) service, and the economic burden,” added the statement.

“The Prime Minister knows better than anyone that all the economic indicators show that Israel is deteriorating into an economic abyss and is sinking into a deep recession,” the forum further said, adding, “The last thing Israel needs at this time is the firing of a defence minister - which will continue to shock the country.”

Israel’s leading television channels and news websites have reported that Netanyahu, under pressure from far-right coalition partners, was contemplating firingGallant and replacing him with a former ally turned rival, Gideon Saar, who is currently a member of the opposition.

Netanyahu, however, has denied that he was in negotiations with Saar, though he did not refer to his plans for Gallant.

Saar, meanwhile, denied that he was negotiating with some members of the coalition, according to Reuters.

With inputs from agencies