A byword for dithering and indecision, Israel’s war cabinet was always likely to be a creature of compromise. Yet barely two weeks after it was formed, it has become, as one veteran politician puts it, a “talking shop”.
“They convene the war cabinet and then seven hours later they end the meeting,” the former minister said. “In wartime you don’t talk for seven hours. Action takes much less time.”
For one officer in the Israel Defence Forces, meanwhile, the presence of three former generals in the cabinet is a small crumb of comfort. “At least there are three professionals there, so technically they have a majority,” the officer said.
The cabinet was formed after public pressure on Binyamin Netanyahu to make a display of national unity. The second-largest opposition party, National Unity, led by Benny Gantz, joined Netanyahu’s coalition and Gantz, along with his party colleague Gadi Eisenkot, both former chiefs of staff of the IDF, joined the war cabinet, along with Netanyahu and the defence minister Yoav Gallant, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party.
The fifth member is Ron Dermer, the strategic affairs minister and Netanyahu’s closest confidant, so — at least on paper — Netanyahu’s side has a majority in cabinet. So far, it has failed to reach a decision on when to launch the ground offensive against Hamas.
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“Netanyahu has only one objective right now and that’s fighting for his own political survival,” says a member of his Likud party. “He knows that every decision he makes, every word he says in the war cabinet, will be scrutinised after the war by a national commission of inquiry which will have to be held.
“So he’s petrified of making a decision and is anxiously trying to ensure that the other members of the [coalition] will also be responsible for anything that goes wrong.”
Netanyahu is a well-known procrastinator and has been resisting the demands of Gallant to launch the operation. Netanyahu deeply distrusts his defence minister, whom he tried to fire back in March after Gallant voiced public criticism of the government’s plans to weaken the Supreme Court.
The announcement that Gallant was to be fired brought hundreds of thousands of Israelis out on to the streets in protest. Netanyahu folded and Gallant stayed, but there has been tension between them since, which has only increased in recent days.
And of course, Netanyahu doesn’t trust Gantz, who for the past five years has been a political rival, sworn to replace him. And is now his wartime partner.
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“Gantz made a mistake of going into a unity government,” a government minister said. “He has no power there and no real influence over Netanyahu. “But he’s a bit of a narcissist and is in love with his public image as a great unifier. So he can’t help himself.”
In the polls at least, it’s working, as his National Unity party has soared and would win a third of the national vote if elections were held now, making him Israel’s next prime minister. The only question is whether he can maintain that image until an election is actually held.
“Gantz’s problem is that he’s almost as bad as Netanyahu at making difficult decisions,” said a former Israeli officer who served under him back when he was the commander of the Paratroopers Brigade. Gantz at the time had various nicknames which could be best translated as something like “Laid-back Benny” or “Benny not in a hurry”, which described his propensity to sleep on it. Though “when he was under actual fire”, his old comrade said, “he would move fast. Anything else, why rush?”
The only member of the war cabinet who actually has a government department of his own to run is Gallant. The former general is now in charge of Israel’s defence establishment but carries a couple of major chips on his shoulder from his army days.
“Unlike Gantz and Eisenkot, who made it all the way to the top, Gallant missed out on being chief of staff,” a senior Defence Ministry official said. Gallant was announced as the next chief of staff back in 2010, but a property scandal revealed by the Israeli media — he had illegally taken control of public land next to his home in a village in northern Israel — scuppered the appointment, which went to Gantz instead.
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“Gallant can’t forget that Gantz and Eisenkot got the job which he was denied, and he’ll be adamant to establish now that he’s the senior defence expert in the cabinet. Also, back in 2009, when he was commander of Israeli forces in the south, he wanted to go all the way against Hamas in Gaza and the government wouldn’t allow him. He is determined now to do it.”
