Lloyd Austin will probably be looking for a new job soon. He’ll need one by January. When he heard that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, our Defense Secretary called him up to discuss their mutual interests. Gallant got the ax right about the exact same time Donald Trump became the projected winner. The timing is no coincidence.
Austin snubs Israel
It’s highly doubtful that Lloyd Austin went “rogue.” It was probably Joe Biden’s handlers who put him up to it. On Thursday, November 7, he reached out to former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant “just two days after he was fired.”
That means he was going behind the backs of his official contacts in Israel. If he was going to call anyone, it should be whoever’s filling Gallant’s seat until a permanent replacement is named.
Officially, Austin assured the ousted official he was “a trusted partner and friend.” Even if he wasn’t working for the government.
His “expertise, professionalism, and seasoned judgment in addressing pressing security challenges was deeply valued” by the Biden team and still is. At least, until January. No matter what Benjamin Netanyahu has to say.
Apparently, the Democrats want Gallant to keep working on negotiating a ceasefire with Hamas. Gallant was separately reported since the phone call to be doing exactly that.
It’s going to be a much bigger challenge, because yet other sources are reporting that Qatar threw the Hamas negotiators out of the country. They also canceled the rest of the meetings. Austin apparently didn’t see those things coming in his crystal ball.
Next defense minister
It’s awful strange that Austin would call the ex-Defense Minister to express “his hope and expectation to have that same good partnership and working relationship with Israel’s next Minister of Defense.” A call like that should have gone through the main Israeli switchboard to the proper official doing Gallant’s job currently.
He should have been telling Israel Katz they want to work with him or his successor. Not the guy that just got canned. The way Netanyahu put it, Gallant was fired over a “crisis of faith.” Katz is a hard-right conservative who gets along great with Donald Trump.
Because he knew the transcript would go public, and that the stenographers get testy about misquoting it, Austin made sure to work in a promise that Uncle Sam “remains committed to Israel’s security and right to defend itself from Iran and its proxies.”
That’s pretty much the entire reason “that American troops have strengthened their posture in the Middle East.” It seems that Gallant can help Joe pull some sort of a “legacy” out of the fire. Gallant claimed that he was fired for his willingness to accept a cease-fire and hostage release deal in Gaza.
The real reason for the call was when Austin casually segued into “a cease-fire and hostage release deal in Gaza and a diplomatic resolution to the fighting in Lebanon.” In just a few more days, everyone in Gaza who has been fighting on the side of Hamas will be starved into total submission. Gallant was fired because he wants Israel to ease up the pressure just when it’s about to pay off. That’s what Joe wants too. It’s not going to happen. There can be a ceasefire after Hamas surrenders totally. Lebanon is next for the exact same treatment and Israel can point to Gaza and say give up now or face the same consequences.
The Democrats are following orders from Brussels. The European bankers who loan money to both sides, to buy weapons with, also sell the weapons. They want Iran’s proxies to have some breathing room to re-arm and then the conflict can continue for another few centuries. Austin can get behind that but he won’t be around long to do it.
