Gantz to likely successor: You’ll be 2nd-class minister, tasked with dismantling IDF

Outgoing Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Monday warned that his likely successor will have to actively guard against military powers being peeled off and handed out to far-right members of the prospective coalition.

Netanyahu inked a coalition deal with Religious Zionism that grants it extensive influence over Israeli civil activities in the West Bank, after previously agreeing to shift control over Border Police operating there to extremist Otzma Yehudit party leader Itamar Ben Gvir.

MK Yoav Gallant, a retired general in Netanyahu’s Likud party, is expected to be the next defense minister.

“I would like to say to my replacement, whoever it may be: If you take the position as it is presented to you, your task will be to become the contractor for the dismantling of the security apparatus and the IDF,” Gantz said at his National Unity party’s faction meeting. READ MORE