Yoav Galant, former commander of the IDF’s Southern Command and a candidate for the Knesset with Moshe Kahlon’s Kulanu party, on Saturday attacked Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon for the way he handled Hamas’s terror tunnels which were destroyed during last summer’s Operation Protective Edge.
“During the operation they found 30 tunnels which led into kindergartens. The Defense Minister had his photo taken next to them and didn’t take action. For me, as commander of the Southern Command (during Operation Cast Lead), it took half the time (to take care of Hamas tunnels) without Iron Dome. Today it would take me even less,” Galant said at a cultural event in Be’er Sheva.
Galant vowed that if he is appointed Defense Minister, the next campaign in Gaza would be shorter than Protective Edge and would bring better results.
“You need to win a war, I’m not willing to live with a draw,” he said, challenging Ya’alon to a debate. “I call on the Defense Minister to a direct debate on security issues in front of the entire nation of Israel within the next week.”
Galant predicted that during the next government’s term, Israel will once again have to fight in Gaza. “Who would the public want to direct over the fighting? One who has proven he knows how to win or those who are undecided, who lack courage and lack leadership? It is unacceptable to me that we sit on an equal footing with Hamas through Egyptian-American mediation.”
“Hamas are not the Red Army as you were told. The Defense Minister is willing to live with a draw. I do not. It’s a problem of creativity, determination and leadership,” he concluded.
The remarks are not the first time Galant has attacked the government and Ya’alon for the way they handled Hamas. He also did so in late January when he accused the government of having known about the tunnels and doing nothing, and again in February, when he blasted Ya’alon as well over the “unbearable reality” of Israel’s national security.
After the summer’s war with Hamas, the IDF confirmed rumors that Hamas had been planning a massive attack on Israeli communities by hundreds of terrorists who would infiltrate into Israel via the vast network of “terror-tunnels” dug from Gaza into Israeli territory.
It was during Galant’s term at Southern Command, however, that terrorists scored one of their greatest successes ever against the IDF – the abduction of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, in 2006. They surprised an IDF force by using a tunnel to cross into Israel, killed two soldiers and kidnapped Shalit. He was returned in 2011 in exchange for over 1,000 terrorists.
