The three-member Israeli war cabinet has a lot to do, but Netanyahu, Gantz, and Gallant do not trust each other. Far-right forces in Israel are also pushing Netanyahu for a drastic response to Iran's attack.
Netanyahu is trying to make decisions within the war cabinet, bypassing his two colleagues, Israeli officials report. Defense Secretary Gallant has the most confrontational stance toward Iran. At the beginning of the war, he advocated a preemptive strike against Iran's Lebanese ally Hezbollah, but is also keen to ally with the USA. The dispute escalated to the point that Netanyahu and Gallant began holding separate press conferences-sometimes just a few minutes after each other-and Netanyahu apologized for blaming the Israeli security apparatus for the Hamas attack on October 7th. The war cabinet is struggling to find a response to the Iranian attack that shows strength and at the same time does not anger the USA and President Joe Biden had expressly warned against an escalation in Rafah. The three decision-makers also have different positions regarding the right answer to freeing the remaining hostages or the positioning towards the USA, according to the Wall Street Journal.