In the video: Gallant called for the legislation to be stopped: "There is an immediate danger to the security of the state" (Photo: Ministry of Defense spokespersons)
In Israeli politics there are many moments of drama, turmoil, crisis, disgust and depression.
But there aren't many moments of leadership.
Defense Minister Yoav Galant's call last night (Saturday) to stop the legal revolution provided such a rare moment.
Gallant's decision to go against the wind blowing in Likud negates all political logic and endangers his throne and his future in the ruling party;
Even before he opened his mouth, the Bibists and Levinists had already marked him with a yellow stripe.
Still, he chose to go against the grain and act according to the dictates of his conscience.
You can agree or oppose his move, depending on your side in the revolution/reform, but it's hard to argue about the courage it takes to stand up to the forces of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud recruits and put a stop sign in front of them.
In a political system that is often motivated by narrow personal and sectoral interests, Gallant chose the best interests of the country, as he saw fit.
He warned outside what he had been warning for weeks with Netanyahu in the closed rooms, with increasing intensity as the protest expanded and penetrated into the army, about the great danger that the legal revolution creates for the IDF and the security of the country. At the beginning of the month, after the first letter from the pilots was published, in which 37 reservists of 69 because they will not show up for a training day, the Minister of Defense and Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi warned the Prime Minister of a dangerous snowball that could spill into the regular army, to its senior and permanent officers.
The black projections matched it.
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He chose to go against the flow and act according to the dictates of his conscience.
Galant (photo: official website, no)
Since then, dozens more petitions and letters from protesting reservists have been added, and the deep social rift has begun to disintegrate the IDF. Last week, Gallant and Levi warned the Prime Minister of a real harm to competence and operational activity if the reform were to pass a second and third reading. Netanyahu, in response, reprimanded the Chief of Staff Publicly address the objections and announced that there will be no stopping of the legislation.
On the way, he managed to postpone the planned speech of the Minister of Defense by 48 hours, but not to silence him.
Nor the Bibiist poison machine that was used against him this weekend, or the bitterly disappointed attacks of the right-wing influencers.
Gallant was one of the main centers of protest against the legal revolution, and especially of the expanding Milomenic protest.
His former comrades in Sheitat showed up outside his home in Moshav Amikam at least twice a week, chiefs of staff, generals, commanders and former commanders sent petitions and pleas, but the victory celebrations of the protest against his move are still early.
It is not at all certain that he will cause the legislation to be stopped, which is supposed to go up for second and third reading in the Knesset this week, but it is certain that he will shake his position at the top of the Likud, and perhaps even endanger the throne of his dreams on the 14th floor of the Kirya, which he entered only three months ago, as a historical correction to the Chiefs of Staff which was disqualified about a decade ago. The political price he may pay for his actions is clear, see entry: Moshe (Bogi) Ya'alon in the Alor Azaria case in 2015. Since the Likud, and the entire right, only the officer. "I am ready to pay any price," he said, and he knew exactly what he meant But in the face of what he defines as "a clear, immediate and tangible danger to the security of the state", he took a risk and came out with the facts.
The warning about the damage to the IDF should the reform pass. Chief of Staff Halevi (Photo: Reuven Castro)
As of the time of writing these lines, the Prime Minister, from his seat at the Savoy Hotel in London, did not respond to the Defense Minister's statement.
Neither is the Minister of Justice, Levin's opponent.
Until now, none of the countless warnings of the security, economic and political dangers of the legal revolution have convinced them to stop.
The president, the chief of staff, the head of the Shin Bet, the governor of the Bank of Israel, the heads of high-tech and the banks, and the management of the Ministry of Finance, warned the government that it was heading for disaster, but Gallant's warm warning is the first to come from within, sharpening Netanyahu's dilemma between the security of the state and the legal revolution.
The Minister of Defense did not mention the Prime Minister in his speech, but he placed responsibility for the deteriorating situation on him.
And also at the doorstep of the other members of the government, the coalition and the Likud, who are supposed to vote this week on the first and major part of the reform in the second and third reading.
Since the weekend, when they found out about Gallant's revealing statement, Netanyahu's people have been working overtime to close ranks to prevent the crack from widening and turning into a snowball.
Gallant is the most senior Likudnik to call for a halt to the legislation, with the most to lose, but not the first.
Knesset members Yuli Edelstein and David Bitan have been calling for a freeze on the reform for the needs of negotiations for several weeks, Minister Avi Dichter joined last week and asked to delay the legislation after Independence Day, as did MK Eli Dellal. In total, the freeze camp has five MKs, all of whom Without exception, he even voted in favor of the legislation last week at the Likud faction meeting.
Bitan and Dellal also publicly pledged that in any case they would vote according to the faction's position, so there is still no real threat to the coalition majority for the approval of the legislation.
He also called for the freezing of the reform.
Bitan (Photo: Knesset Spokesperson, Noam Moskovitz)
Gallant's words may cause some of the Likudniks in the Silence Monastery, such as Israel Katz and Gila Gamaliel, to take a clear position.
And also to the heads of the ultra-orthodox factions, who upon his statement have already announced that they will support any decision Netanyahu makes.
But the Bibist-Levinist faction, led by Galit Distal, Shlomo Karai and Tali Gottlieb, which is its own faction, demands to continue with the reform with all its might and not to give in to the protesters and refusers.
And so is Itamar Ben Gabir and Otzma Yehudit, who are threatening to completely dismantle the right-wing government.
As well as Justice Minister Levin, who has already threatened to resign if Netanyahu arrests him.
Gallant's statement puts Netanyahu in a difficult choice - between the security of the state and the integrity of the coalition, between the extremists and the statesmen, exactly in the 90th minute.
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Yoav Galant
The legal revolution
