While Israeli missiles are hurtling toward terrorist leaders in Tehran and Beirut, Yoav Gallant is piloting the Israeli Defense Ministry from an ejection seat. Paradoxically, the threat to him comes not so much from Hamas, Hezbollah or Iran, but from within. This 65-year-old former general has been in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s sights since he dared to oppose a judicial reform last year that he deemed liberticidal. Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed him from his duties before making a tactical withdrawal.
This stiff-looking, serious-tongued father of three has a thick skin. His heritage is, it is true, anything but light: his parents are Polish Holocaust survivors and his first name Yoav refers to a battle in which his father took part in 1948.
His career in the Israeli army had only one break: as a logger in Alaska in the early 1980s. In 2002, this defender of settlements in the West Bank became a general and military attaché to Ariel Sharon. In 2010, he would have been appointed chief of staff if he had not tried to appropriate land in front of his house.Since 2012, his theater of operations has moved to the political scene. A fine tactician, he joined Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud.
It remains to be seen how the rest of the war in Gaza will unfold. Threatened with an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, like Benjamin Netanyahu, he is pressing the latter in vain to present a post-war plan that includes the Palestinians. Unless the Prime Minister finds a pretext to get rid of this minister who refuses to stand to attention.
New: discover our Premium offers!
Your responsibilities require close attention to the events and power relations that govern our world. You need to anticipate major trends to recognize, at the right time, the opportunities to seize and the risks to prevent. This is precisely the promise of our PREMIUM offers: to provide you with exclusive analyses and sector monitoring tools to make informed decisions, identify weak signals and support your biases. Don’t wait any longer, the most decisive decisions for your 2024 successes are being made now!
I discover the offers
