Israel’s Government Is Fighting With Itself Over Post-War Gaza

A very public split has emerged in the Israeli government over post-war plans for the Gaza strip. This week, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said at a press conference that he would not agree to establish Israeli military rule in Gaza. Benny Gantz, an ex-general who has served as Minister of Defense and deputy prime minister, agreed with Gallant, saying he had “spoke the truth.”

The world’s preeminent genocide enthusiast, Benjamin Netanyahu, fired back at Gallant without naming him, saying that he was making “excuses” for not eliminating Hamas. At his press conference, Gallant said he asked Netanyahu for an alternative governing body in Gaza to Hamas, and he did not receive a response. Generals Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot backed Gallant’s statement while Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Internal Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir condemned his comments.

This places Israel’s chief ally, Biden’s White House, in the middle of this escalating internal Israeli conflict whether they like it or not. Public statements by Joe Biden and other members of his administration in favor of empowering the Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza indicate they are on Gallant’s side of this fight, with Netanyahu’s ultranationalist and right-wing religious zealots becoming increasingly isolated even within their own government.

The so-called centrist coalition led by Yoav Gallant in Israel is vocally committing themselves to a path where the two-state solution is the only logical outcome. There is no world where Benjamin Netanyahu is the Prime Minister of Israel and an independent Palestine exists, and influential Israeli ministers like Gallant must know this, hence why their criticisms have broken out of private conversations and into the open.

Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth obtained an Israeli government document that stated military control of the Gaza strip would cost $5.4 billion annually, and the document concluded that “Controlling Gaza means an unprecedented budget crisis.” This does not include the immense up-front costs to repair the strip and attempt to make it livable again. Netanyahu is so deeply committed to this genocide that he’s willing to destroy Israel in order to complete his final solution.

In a CNBC interview, Netanyahu said this week that “the two-state solution that people talk about would be the greatest reward for the terrorist that you can imagine.” He very clearly has no plans to ever recognize a Palestinian state, and comments like Gallant’s make it glaringly obvious that the Israeli government is headed towards some kind of breaking point.

If Benjamin Netanyahu gets his way, he will do far more damage to Israel than Hamas or Hezbollah ever could. As far as I’m concerned, any of my fellow Jews still supporting Netanyahu at this point are betraying Israel and everything they claim to stand for, as they have let hatred overtake hope.

Bibi has to go, and this has been obvious since well before Hamas’ October 7th attack and Netanyahu’s genocide in response. Gallant has already previously challenged Netanyahu’s criminality and sparked a crisis of leadership. In late March last year, Netanyahu fired Gallant over criticizing his plan to overhaul Israel’s justice system in Bibi’s own image, which sparked widespread protests. Fifteen days later, Netanyahu reversed the decision, proving how little public support he truly enjoys.

One thing you see consistently in Israeli media coverage that most mainstream American coverage misses is an understanding that history did not begin on October 7th, and that Netanyahu by definition is a criminal who is leading an emergency government. You cannot analyze Israel’s decisions properly without that context, despite it lacking in most mainstream U.S. analyses of Israel. If Israel really were a democracy, Netanyahu would not be its leader right now.

It’s clear to anyone who was not born seven months ago that Netanyahu sees the brutalization of Palestine as his primary method to retain his illegitimate grip on power. So long as he keeps waging war on an innocent civilian population, his emergency government can remain in place. Netanyahu does not care about Israel, only his own ruling coalition, as proven by the fact that he is devoted to a fascist post-war plan for Gaza that an Israeli government document claims will utterly bankrupt Israel.

Despite what our antisemitic overlords in American media and power assert, supporting Netanyahu’s government in their assault on a captive civilian population is not a prerequisite for being a good Jew. Jews who actually care about Israel and not revenge should oppose Netanyahu, who has done more to make Jews around the world unsafe than any Jew in our history. Defense Ministers like Yoav Gallant have understood this at least since Netanyahu’s coup, and the fact that this internal fight has now broken out into the open indicates that this battle for the future of Israel will only escalate as Netanyahu’s depravity becomes more and more unhinged.