Fired former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant visited the Chabad headquarters in Brooklyn on Sunday, marking his first trip to the United States since being dismissed from his post about a month ago. Speaking to attendees, Gallant reflected on Israel’s current war, calling it a war that "brought us unprecedented achievements."
He attributed these successes to "the actions of IDF soldiers and the miracle of God," drawing applause from the audience.
“This is my first visit to the United States – here in New York, in Brooklyn – since the war that was forced upon us,” Gallant began. “We launched this campaign on Simchat Torah, one of the most challenging days for the Jewish people, the hardest since World War II and the Holocaust. Our enemies thought they could defeat us. We saw it in the documents we retrieved from their computers in Gaza.”
Gallant referenced the October 7 attack by Hamas that ignited the war, which was followed by Hezbollah’s actions on October 8 and involvement from additional adversaries on seven fronts. He emphasized Israel’s decisive response. “Thirteen months after the war began, Hamas is a dismantled organization. We’ve struck them a devastating blow. Their leaders – Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh, Mohammed Deif – are gone. In the north, too, remember Nasrallah’s boasts and threats? We neutralized them. There’s no Nasrallah, no Sinwar, none of the others.”
He credited these outcomes to a combination of national faith, global Jewish support, and the extraordinary sacrifices of Israel’s soldiers.
“This couldn’t have happened without the faith of the Jewish people, the prayers of millions around the world, and the heroic actions of our soldiers. They deserve all the praise. As someone who led this campaign, I knew I was doing so in the name of Israel and as a messenger of the Almighty, the Lord of Hosts. We are Jews; we have a land and a nation.”
Gallant’s itinerary includes a stop in Washington, D.C., where he is expected to meet with senior officials at the White House and State Department. This trip marks his first since the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued a warrant for his arrest and after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu barred him from traveling to the U.S. prior to his dismissal.
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Earlier in October, Gallant had been slated for a brief visit to Washington to strengthen U.S.-Israel coordination amid escalating tensions with Iran following a ballistic missile attack. However, Netanyahu imposed conditions on the trip, including a mandatory conversation between him and U.S. President Joe Biden, and the visit was ultimately postponed, with the Pentagon later confirming the delay.