Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's move to fire Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and appoint MK Gideon Sa'ar in his stead will likely be delayed due to Tuesday's hacking attack in Beirut, according to a number of reports.
A number of leaks on Monday afternoon indicated that negotiations between Netanyahu and Sa'ar had advanced significantly and that a deal was nearing, in which Sa'ar would become defense minister, his number two MK Ze'ev Elkin would also become a minister, and a mechanism would be implemented that would enable him to rejoin the Likud and contend in the next election.
Former minister MK Gadi Eisenkot said in an interview on Kan Radio on Tuesday morning that Sa'ar was "unqualified" to serve as defense minister.
The comment came a day after a flurry of reports indicated that Sa'ar was nearing a deal with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to enter the government and take over as defense minister instead of current minister Yoav Gallant.
Fellow former minister and Sa'ar colleague, MK Benny Gantz, said later on Tuesday that the deal "endangered Israeli security in the most concrete way." In his speech at a conference of the Moshavim Movement Council, Gantz commended the national security cabinet's decision late Monday night to include the return of evacuees from the North to their homes in the official goals of the war, albeit half a year too late. "But replacing a defense minister on the eve of a possibly intense campaign in the North that could turn into a regional war in my eyes is security recklessness," Gantz said.
"When we joined the emergency government we put politics aside for the sake of the war, and now Netanyahu and Sa'ar are putting aside the war for the sake of politics," Gantz said.
New details emerged in a number of reports on Tuesday morning.
Business Forum warns Netanyahu
According to a report in Haaretz, Sa'ar demanded to receive veto power over any legislation regarding changes to the judicial system, and also agreed that he would only consider candidates for the next IDF Chief of Staff that were pre approved by Netanyahu.
The Israeli Business Forum, which includes the heads of the 200 largest companies in Israel's economy, said in a statement that firing Gallant would "weaken Israel in the eyes of its enemies, and deepen even further the divisiveness in the nation of Israel." The forum called on Netanyahu not to follow through with the move, adding that it would also cause further deterioration to the Israeli economy, which was "sinking into a deep recession."
The forum participated in a strike in March 2023 against Netanyahu's first attempt to fire Gallant, and enabled its workers to skip work in order to attend protests.