It should have been one humiliation too many. On Wednesday, October 9, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu curtly put an end to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant's planned trip to Washington. The purpose of the visit was to meet his counterpart, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, in the run-up to Israeli strikes against Iran.
Its cancellation could have provoked an open crisis between the two Israeli leaders, who are not only waging war in Gaza and now Lebanon, but apparently against each other, with disagreements that have been on full display for months. But Gallant complied. Once again, he has unwillingly served the aims of the prime minister, who has regained control of the channel between Israel and the United States. Relations have been greatly affected by the tension between himself and President Joe Biden, who no longer conceals his dislike of the Israeli leader.
On Wednesday, in a telephone call between the two leaders – joined by the vice president and Democratic presidential candidate, Kamala Harris – the aim was to review how the wars being waged by the Israeli army in Gaza and Lebanon are being conducted, but also to discuss how Israel intends to strike Iran. Netanyahu's intention was to involve the US without giving Washington the latitude to decide on the exact caliber of these strikes, the details of which were to be put to a vote in the Israeli security cabinet on Thursday, October 10. Netanyahu and Biden had not spoken for almost two months, despite the acceleration of events in the region, which would have justified intensive communication.
The option of hitting hard at Iranian targets has been considered by Israel since the firing of 180 ballistic missiles by Tehran at Israeli territory on October 1. Gallant, who was not involved in the conversation with Biden and Harris, told Israeli military officials on Wednesday evening that the strikes would be "deadly, precise and above all surprising." He added: "They will not understand what happened and how it happened, they will see the results." This grandiloquent threat remains vague, but seems to orient the nature of the action towards special operations like the one that eliminated Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31 – at the risk of triggering a high-level Iranian retaliation.
Over the past week, a number of Israeli commentators have raised the threat of bombing Iran's nuclear program or oil sector – a move Washington is opposed to, and the mention of which has made it jumpy. With the November 5 US election approaching, the Biden administration does not want to see a further extension of the Middle East conflict. Can Netanyahu, even if forced to comply with these injunctions, decide alone on actions against Tehran? This is where dissension with his defense minister comes in.
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