Yoav Gallant
Theodore Herzl was born in Hungary in 1860 and moved to Paris in 1891, from where he reported for the Viennese newspaper Neue Freie Presse.
Ron Weiser
It was there that, three years later, he witnessed the deep antisemitism and hypocrisy of the French people and the French government in the infamous Dreyfus Affair.
Sadly, if he were around today, Herzl would see that nothing much had changed in that regard.
Of course, it is not just the French, but France is of some particular interest at this moment in time because of its influence and history in connection to Lebanon and its recent shameful vote at the United Nations.
It seems to me that we know a lot more about Herzl’s views and actions on behalf of the Zionist movement and the Jewish people, than we know about his personal life, other than in the headlines of a troubled wife and three children who met horrible ends. His eldest daughter was a drug addict, his son converted to Christianity and shot himself at 40 and his youngest daughter, Trude, was murdered in Theresienstadt.
Trude’s son Stephen, having been sent to England before the Shoah, jumped off a bridge and killed himself in Washington at the age of 27.
Whilst being subsumed by a political life surrounded by amazing people and becoming a national hero and inspiration, Herzl’s private life seems to have been a very lonely one.
On May the 16th 1961, the acting Mayor of Paris, affixed a plaque on the building that Herzl had lived in.
Some ten or twelve years ago, we were doing a walking tour of Paris with the Jewish Agency when we arrived at that very house, with that plaque. It was a small group and yet, actually across the road from us, was one member of our party, who stood apart and was alone.
Initially, we were not even sure he was part of our group.
Yoav Gallant, had been nominated in 2010 for the position of IDF Chief of Staff by then Defence Minister Barak and Prime Minister Netanyahu.
Some documents were produced, later to be proven as forgeries, purporting to show corruption on Gallant’s part, his appointment was put aside and instead Benny Gantz became IDF Chief of Staff.
In any case, Gallant’s face outside of Israel, or maybe also even inside Israel, was not well known at the time and as we crossed the road to go and talk to him, we were not entirely confident it really was Gallant.
As it turns out, it was.
My impressions of him that I recalled from our little chat, was of a dour, serious character, very military in bearing and devoid of any attempts at small talk.
Thinking back to that encounter, it struck me that the man who then stood outside the one-time residence of the political master Herzl, could be described today, as the loneliest politician in the Knesset.
Gallant’s background and Jewish upbringing was different from Herzl’s. His parents were Polish Jewish Shoah survivors. His father fought the Nazis as a partisan and his mother had been on the SS Exodus.
In 2015 Gallant entered the Knesset as number two in the Kulanu party and in December of 2018 he joined the Likud.
He served in various roles, but of interest in the current context, was the time he served as Minister for Education from 2020, in the Netanyahu government.
Gallant took a strong stance against allowing anyone whose causes contradicted the vision of Israel as democratic, Jewish and Zionist, from entering schools. Specifically, Gallant gave a written instruction against any organisation which cited Israel as an ‘apartheid state.’ His prime target at the time was B’Tselem director general, Hagai El-Ad.
In 2022, Prime Minister Netanyahu appointed Gallant Defense Minister.
It seemed like a natural appointment. Gallant was a very strong military man, on the secular right of the Likud and at the same time, someone who would not pose a future political threat to Netanyahu’s leadership.
Surprise, surprise, on the 25th of March 2023, even before the tragedy of October 7, Gallant was already becoming a problem for Netanyahu when he publicly spoke out against the judicial reforms proposed by his own government and in support of the demonstrations against them.
The next day, Prime Minister Netanyahu announced that he had sacked Gallant.
Which led to even more mass protests.
On the 10th of April, Netanyahu announced that he was not dismissing Gallant after all.
Yoav Gallant has since, taken public issue with Netanyahu over numerous policies, including the ‘day after’ in Gaza; on the question of the hostages and the Philadelphi corridor; on when and how to deal with Hezbollah; and on matters to do with coalition partners such as the draft for Haredim and the Temple Mount with Ben Gvir.
Gallant, he and he alone, has become the unlikely lightning rod for dissent in Netanyahu’s government, the one he serves in as one of its most senior ministers.
And in an unexpected way, Gallant is perceived to have become the man of principle in this government by even those opposed to his history and policies. Even those demonstrators who it is very unlikely would have supported Gallant in the past, now look to him as the government’s moral compass.
Enter, or rather re-enter, the very charismatic and supposedly politically savvy, Gidon Sa’ar.
Potentially the solution to two of Netanyahu’s political aims in one hit – replacing Gallant and expanding his coalition.
Sa’ar at one time was seen as the rising star of the Likud and frontrunner to eventually replace Netanyahu. He famously split with Netanyahu in 2020 after being roundly defeated by Netanyahu in a Likud leadership ballot and his New Hope party, currently fails to even pass the threshold in all opinion polls.
Sa’ar had defended Gallant and opposed his sacking in 2023, but now was open to approaches from Netanyahu to rejoin the coalition and replace Gallant as Defense Minister, as his own ticket back to centre stage.
That all fell apart last week, at least for the time being, as events in Lebanon overtook the discussions, as well as Sa’ar’s concerns that the electorate would not look favourably upon Gallant’s removal.
As we approach Rosh Hashanah and contemplate the events around us, it is important to take a step back and realise that what has really changed, and in a shift of historic proportions that we often overlook, is that the Jewish condition has improved so much since the times of Herzl.
Obviously, there was no Jewish state, nor army to defend the Jewish people. Herzl had no defense minister.
Despite all of the challenges, we live in an age of miracles and are better equipped to face the future than at any other time in the past 2,000 years.
Ron Weiser is the Honorary Life Member ZFA Executive and Honorary Life President, ZC of NSW
