The last time Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired his defense minister, it ended with an election and a defeat at the ballot box. It happened at the beginning of 1999, when relations between Netanyahu and his popular defense minister, Yitzhak Mordechai, collapsed following the Wye Plantation Summit (1998) and the thwarting of the agreement reached in its wake. Trust between the two eroded quickly, and Netanyahu heard rumors that Mordechai was holding secret contacts with his rivals Roni Milo (Likud), Dan Meridor (Likud) and Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, retiring Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of staff. After Mordechai was fired, Netanyahu’s fears were realized in full: Mordechai indeed joined the three rivals, created the Center Party and although he did not win, he was considered the decisive factor in Netanyahu’s defeat in the 1999 election.

On June 16 came another round in the perpetual war of attrition between Netanyahu and the military-security elite in Israel. It started with former Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon’s speech at the annual Herzliya Conference. Ya'alon did not spare the rod from Netanyahu, blaming him for scaring the public and an erosion of values and ethics in Israeli society. Ya'alon declared that he determined unequivocally that Israel does not face an existential threat, and that Netanyahu continues to terrify the Israeli public in order to divert the public discourse from the revelations of corruption, incitement and distress of the citizens.

After Ya'alon, another former defense minister and prime minister approached the podium: Ehud Barak. A few minutes into Barak’s speech, Netanyahu already missed Ya'alon. Barak, who was Netanyahu’s commander in the elite General Staff Reconnaissance Unit, angrily attacked Netanyahu, saying, “We are led by … a weak, flaccid and noisy prime minister and government, deceitful and extreme, that has failed again and again in ensuring our security, that is undermining the fabric of democracy in Israel, failing to maintain our relationship with the United States … missing diplomatic opportunities again and again, and paralyzed to act effectively in managing the conflict.”

Barak continued, “What really stands at the top of the Netanyahu government’s priorities is not Israel’s security or safeguarding democracy, but a creeping and cunning advancement of the agenda of 'one state from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River.'”