While the world’s eyes were elsewhere, Netanyahu fired his defence minister – the consequences will be huge | Alon Pinkas

The PM gambled that he could get away with sacking Yoav Gallant during the US election, but Israelis are angry; he may have miscalculated

In the middle of a 13-months-long, two-theatre war in Gaza and Lebanon, and a spiralling military engagement with Iran, the prime minister of Israel saw fit to dismiss the defence minister, Yoav Gallant. In his place he appointed a career politician, one Israel Katz, who was the foreign minister - not that anyone in Israel noticed him then.

Katz has zero defence credentials, zero credibility with the military top brass, and zero experience in managing such a huge and complex system. That's on-brand Netanyahu; under him, four defence ministers have been fired or resigned.

Alon Pinkas served as Israel's consul general in New York from 2000 to 2004. He is now a columnist for Haaretz

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