Shortly after receiving the dismissal letter from the Prime Minister, Defense Minister Yoav Galant responded to Netanyahu's move: "The security of the State of Israel has been and will always remain my life's mission."
In a statement he issued earlier, the Prime Minister justified his decision: "Unfortunately, although in the first months of the campaign there was such trust and very fruitful work, in recent months this trust has eroded between me and the Minister of Defense. Between me and Gallant, significant gaps were revealed in the management of the campaign, and these gaps were accompanied by statements and actions that contradicted the government's decisions and the cabinet's decisions."
Netanyahu also noted: "I made many attempts to bridge these gaps, but they continued to widen. They also came to the public's attention in an unacceptable manner, and worse, they came to the enemy's attention – our enemies took pleasure in this and derived a lot of benefit from it."
According to him, "Different opinions in open debates, everyone knows, those who know me – this is my way of managing discussions, evaluations, and decisions. Everyone knows this. But the trust crisis that has developed between me and the Minister of Defense has become public knowledge, and this crisis does not allow for the proper continuation of managing the campaign. Not only I say this, most members of the government and most members of the cabinet, almost all of them share this feeling that this cannot continue."