"That was a really bad message," Nimrod Goren, a senior fellow for Israeli affairs at the Middle East Institute, told Insider, citing the immediate fallout that came as a result of Gallant's firing. Universities shut their doors, air traffic came to a standstill at Ben Gurion International Airport, and embassies around the world halted operations.
"Nobody got it — it didn't make any sense," Goren added. "It's not the way Israel is governed."
Ben-Gvir, an ultra-nationalist, has been convicted of supporting a terrorist organization and incitement to racism. Goren said granting Ben-Gvir this power would be "very dangerous" because of his past provocations of Palestinians, Arabs, and people on the left.
"We need to make sure that it doesn't happen, because if such a National Guard — which is independent from the other official institutions being set up under Ben-Gvir's supervision — that's not something we want to have in the current climate for sure," Goren said. "You don't need militias running around the streets in Israel."