HIt doesn’t look good in war when a country’s defense minister gives his prime minister an ultimatum. “I call on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make a decision,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant said in a press conference on Wednesday.
He added that Netanyahu must “announce that Israel will not take civilian control of the Gaza Strip, that Israel will not establish a military government in the Gaza Strip, and that an alternative administration to the Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip will be formed immediately.” Gallant, Netanyahu belongs to the Likud Party.
Galant said that „the day after Hamas” can only be achieved if Palestinian bodies take control of Gaza, accompanied by international actors, in reference to the Palestinian Authority and moderate Arab countries.
According to the Minister of Defense, he has been urging the Prime Minister for months to present a scenario for the period after the military operation in Gaza. But because of his hesitation, Israel’s military successes are once again at stake: „Hesitation in making a decision ultimately means making a decision.”
Six months after the mass killing of Israelis by the Hamas terrorist militia and the start of the subsequent Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip, the tone between the country’s military leadership and Netanyahu’s government has become noticeably harsher. Gallant’s ultimatum was the strongest expression yet of growing opposition among the generals to the lack of leadership in the Jewish state’s political leadership.
Northern Gaza Strip is out of control
Last weekend, the military leadership had already played a grudge against Netanyahu to the media — with the same tenor: If the prime minister does not soon present a plausible scenario for Israel’s war goals, what Israel has achieved so far risks being destroyed. Lost.
Evidence of the officers’ fears can be found in daily reports from the front. Although Israel announced months ago that it had militarily taken control of the northern Gaza Strip, new clashes with Hamas are still erupting there.
Is it perhaps because a reporter asked military spokesman Daniel Hagari earlier this week that Israel has not created a post-war order in the north? Hajari responded: There is no doubt that the presence of an alternative administration to the Hamas administration would increase the pressure on Hamas. But this is a question directed to the political leadership.”
In fact, the solution Gallant outlined in his press conference has been around since at least November of last year. At the time, American, Arab and European representatives, as well as members of Israeli security circles, told WELT AM SONNTAG that the Palestinian Authority would take over the administration of the Gaza Strip and an international protection force with the participation of Western-oriented forces. The Arab countries were in the process of preparation.
But Netanyahu still does not want to make any commitment. The Prime Minister continues to say what he does not want. Shortly after Gallant’s press conference, Netanyahu was released Video about SMS service. Netanyahu says, looking annoyed: “I am not ready to replace Fatehistan with Hamastan.”
He refers to the secular Palestinian organization Fatah, the leading force in the Palestinian Authority, which lost power in Gaza to Hamas, but still bears responsibilities in the West Bank.
The body was established when Israel concluded the Oslo Peace Accords with Fatah leader Yasser Arafat in the early 1990s. Since then, she has been considered the legitimate representative of the Palestinians. “The Palestinian Authority supports terrorism, teaches terrorism, and finances terrorism,” Netanyahu responds to Gallant in the video, even though the Authority generally cooperates with Israel on security issues.
“The basic condition for handing over Gaza to another actor is the destruction of Hamas, without condition or condition.” This is how Netanyahu’s video ends after only 48 seconds, without the Prime Minister explaining who the „other perpetrator” is.
The fact that Netanyahu avoided making a decision is down to his coalition partners. The majority of his government is very narrow and the Prime Minister relies on the parties of the settler movement and its leaders Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir.
But they are increasingly openly calling for Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip and the alleged voluntary migration of Palestinians from there. Ben Gvir, who holds the position of Minister of Public Security, confirmed this on Wednesday evening. “Tell them: Go home, go to your countries! This is ours now and forever!”
But neither Israel’s allies nor the Israeli people, for whom opinion polls show a clear majority against the reoccupation of the Gaza Strip, support such a plan. The Israeli army had tried unsuccessfully to control the coastal strip for decades until its withdrawal in 2005. The army would not want to undertake such a bloody mission again.