Defense Minister Yoav Gallant demanded in a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday morning that the latter order an investigation into whether far-right National Security Minister MK Itamar Ben-Gvir prevented or delayed police reinforcements to the two IDF bases that were overrun on Monday by members and supporters of his Otzma Yehudit Party.
The events in question began after military police arrested nine reservists for suspected sodomy of an imprisoned Hamas terrorist. Dozens of protesters against the arrests, accompanied by at least one minister and two Members of Knesset from the coalition, succeeded on Monday afternoon in breaking into the Sde Teiman base near Beersheba, where the arrests had been conducted. Dozens of protesters later on Monday evening also succeeded in breaching security and entering the Beit Lid base, where the arrested reservists were being held.
“Yesterday’s events caused severe harm to national security and the government’s authority over the IDF,” Gallant wrote. “Backing and active participation of elected officials in riots in IDF bases, while issuing harsh statements against senior IDF officers, is a severe and extremely dangerous phenomenon that harms security, social cohesiveness, and Israel’s international reputation. This dangerous phenomenon must be treated decisively and immediately,” Gallant wrote.
'Lack of police presence for long hours'
The defense minister added that the events “served enemy propaganda against us, which acts to divert attention away from the atrocities the enemy committed against Israeli citizens.”
“The lack of police presence for long hours forced deployment of IDF forces to the area at the expense of operational missions, and forced the chief of staff himself to stop all of his important activities in order to personally treat an incited mob’s break-in into IDF bases,” Gallant wrote.
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“I call on you to act with a heavy hand against members of the coalition who participated in the unrest, and order an immediate investigation in order to examine whether the national security minister prevented or delayed police action to respond to the violent events in which members of his party took part,” the defense minister concluded.
Ben-Gvir responded with a letter of his own to the prime minister soon after. Ben-Gvir rejected Gallant’s claim, arguing that he was legally prohibited from giving operational orders to the police, and called on Netanyahu to order an investigation into Gallant’s conduct before the October 7 Hamas massacre, and into whether the defense minister had made security-related decisions behind the prime minister’s back.
Netanyahu briefly addressed Monday’s events in the government’s weekly meeting, which was held on Tuesday morning instead of the usual Sunday morning due to the prime minister’s delayed return from the US on Sunday afternoon. According to a number of reports, which were not confirmed independently, the prime minister compared the break-ins to protests against the government, saying that “you do not break into IDF bases, but nor do you enable selective enforcement and enable the blocking of Kaplan [street in Tel Aviv].”
Earlier on Tuesday, National Unity chairman Benny Gantz criticized Netanyahu’s silence during Monday night’s events.
“Silence at times of crisis is not leadership and is not responsibility,” Gantz said in a video statement. He added that he had “followed the events overnight with deep concern,” and added that “in order for the IDF to dismantle Hezbollah, we must not dismantle the IDF.”
Gantz called for a new government, arguing that the next government would be one of national consensus, in which “extremists will be distanced from influential positions,” and “leadership will set a personal example.”
“But in the meantime, in the coming days, we must simply calm down. We will back the IDF. We are a strong nation that knows how to overcome everything,” Gantz said.
Monday’s events also led to a flurry of public letters. Interior Minister Moshe Arbel (Shas) published a public letter alongside MKs Chili Tropper (National Unity), Eli Dallal (Likud), Moshe Solomon (Religious Zionist Party), Merav Ben Ari (Yesh Atid), Efrat Rayten (Democrats), and Oded Forer (Yisrael Beytenu), calling on leaders to leave the IDF out of political arguments.
“We will not be silent in the face of the danger of internal disintegration by extremist elements. We will not stand by in the face of silence and certainly in the face of calls by irresponsible leaders, who are sending us into the abyss,” Arbel and the MKs wrote.
“Israel is our shared home, and whoever wishes to bring its walls down on us, will find facing him an Israeli majority that loves this place profoundly, that supports our soldiers but also our law enforcement agents, and insists on safeguarding our home,” they wrote.
Other letters included one from opposition leader Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) to Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana (Likud) calling on the latter to convene the Knesset plenum in order to discuss Monday’s events; and a similar request from Democrats MK Gilad Kariv to Knesset National Security Committee Chairman Zvika Fogel to convene the committee for the same purpose.