Did Haredi Conscription Play a Role in Netanyahu’s Decision to Fire Yoav Gallant?

As the US election was unfolding on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed Yoav Gallant from his position as Minister of Defense, sparking protests throughout Israel.

A member of Netanyahu’s own Likud party, Gallant has nonetheless been frequently critical of the prime minister. For weeks, Netanyahu has been telegraphing Gallant’s dismissal, citing a “crisis of trust” as the official reason.

Specifically, the prime minister’s office accuses Gallant of resisting or outright refusing a number of orders from the prime minister, including on: the IDF entry into Rafah, assassination of Hezbollah chief Hasan Nasrallah, control of the Philadelphi Corridor (the area in Gaza that connects Hamas to its Iranian resupply), and more.

If the US Secretary of Defense were to engage in similar behavior against presidential orders, that would be considered insubordination, and cause for immediate dismissal — or possibly even treason, and cause for criminal penalties.

Yet in Israel, paradoxically, such behavior is accepted: unlike American cabinet secretaries — who are pure political appointees — Israeli cabinet ministers are (typically) also Members of Knesset. A Member of Knesset is legally independent from the prime minister, and thus permitted, and even expected, to sometimes criticize and disagree, just as a US senator might do towards the president.

Many Israelis saw Gallant as an important moderating voice in a cabinet that otherwise leaned to the right. To be clear: Gallant was fired only from his position as Minister of Defense, but he remains a Member of Knesset and an influential voice in the governing coalition.

Some believe that, contrary to Netanyahu’s statement, Gallant’s dismissal was actually related to the Haredi conscription law.

Last June, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that Haredi (ultra-religious) Israelis may no longer be exempted from military service as they have been for decades. In recent years, conscription was a point of political disagreement — between the priority of equally sharing Israel’s military burden versus a common Haredi argument that the real source of Israel’s safety is actually not the IDF, but rather the spiritual impact of full time study in yeshivas.

Yet with many IDF reservists now forced from their jobs and families for extended periods, the matter has taken on greater weight, with direct, real-world implications for Israeli families and for IDF preparedness. In short, Israel simply does not have enough soldiers to support a massive Haredi exemption while still remaining safe.

Exactly how the Supreme Court ruling will be implemented depends on decisions by IDF leadership and the Minister of Defense. Some Israelis feel that Netanyahu fired Gallant in order to appease the ultra-Orthodox political parties that are essential to his coalition, thus paving the way for a law that minimizes, delays, or entirely avoids Haredi conscription despite the Supreme Court ruling.

Only Netanyahu knows for certain how much the conscription issue impacted his decision, and how much was related to Gallant’s opposition to government decisions. In short, the reasons behind Gallant’s dismissal are various and complex, political, practical, and very very Israeli.

Daniel Pomerantz is the CEO of RealityCheck, an organization dedicated to deepening public conversation through robust research studies and public speaking.

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