Likud MK Dan Ilouz delivered a striking public statement on the future of Israel's political leadership in the wake of the October 7 massacre, telling Galei Tzahal radio that he believed, and continues to believe, that the country's leadership needed to change following the attack.
"I thought, and I still think, that after October 7 the leadership needed to be replaced," Ilouz said in the interview. He explained the reasoning behind his position, saying "there was a mega-event that cannot be ignored, and I said that to whoever needed to hear it."
Ilouz went on to describe the political complexity he has navigated since forming that view, and the considerations that led him to remain within the coalition despite it. "Within the political system as it exists today, I had to weigh considerations in order to preserve my influence," he said, before naming the issues he chose to stay in a position of power to fight for, chief among them the military draft law affecting the Haredi community.
The remarks build on a more detailed account Ilouz gave in a separate interview with Ynet's political podcast "120 and One" earlier this week, in which he disclosed that roughly a third of the Likud Knesset faction organized in the weeks following October 7 in an effort to bring a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to Ilouz, the effort came close to materializing but ultimately collapsed due to internal power struggles and what he described as ego considerations among those involved. He said the push lost momentum in particular once Gideon Saar joined the coalition, complicating the political calculus.
Ilouz, speaking to Ynet, said he continues to grapple personally with the events of October 7, describing his role at the time as deputy on the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee as junior, and said he asks himself daily whether he could have done something differently, asked better questions, or toured the Gaza border region and seen the warning signs. He said that while many of his Likud colleagues now compete to appear closest to Netanyahu ahead of primaries, some of those same colleagues had privately discussed replacing him in the aftermath of the attack.
Ilouz has already announced his departure from Likud, citing his opposition to the coalition's approach to Haredi enlistment legislation, which he has publicly criticized as protecting draft exemptions during wartime. He said reactions to his break with the party split roughly evenly between Likud supporters warning him he would be defeated in primaries and others telling him he was the only MK who still represented their views.
