Herzog: PM abandoned IDF chief after he advocated troop restraint

Opposition leader Isaac Herzog on Saturday slammed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for failing to defend IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, after the latter came under a storm of criticism from the right-wing for saying that the army’s rules of engagement do not include soldiers “emptying a full magazine at a girl holding scissors.”

“We cannot insert the army into political discourse, it is the army of us all,” Herzog told a cultural event in Mevasseret Zion, Channel 2 reported.

“The chief of staff doesn’t need protection from opposition MKs; the IDF needs the prime minister to stand up and support its commander, and this he did not do. Netanyahu let ministers and MKs in his coalition degrade the man in charge of our security, and this is unacceptable.”

Herzog drew a comparison between the attacks on Eisenkot and the attacks on President Reuven Rivlin in December, after the president attended a conference at which the controversial organization Breaking the Silence was also present.

“The prime minister should have stopped it,” Herzog said Saturday, “but just as he did not stop the attacks on the president two months ago, this time too he let them sow hatred and division in the nation, and humiliate the IDF. It’s shameful.”

Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid on Saturday also condemned the onslaught against Eisenkot.

“In the last 24 hours I’ve seen incessant attacks on the IDF chief by politicians,” he said an event in Rehovot. “We need to give full backing to the security forces, their work and the rules of engagement. An attack on the IDF chief means an attack on the IDF.”

Speaking to high schoolers in Bat Yam on Wednesday, Eisenkot appeared to be alluding to a stabbing attack carried out by scissors-wielding teen Palestinian cousins in Jerusalem in November.

“When there’s a 13-year-old girl holding scissors or a knife and there is some distance between her and the soldiers, I don’t want to see a soldier open fire and empty his magazine at a girl like that, even if she is committing a very serious act,” Eisenkot said. “Rather he should use the force necessary to fulfill the objective.”

“The army cannot speak in slogans such as ‘If a person rises to kill you, kill him first,’” he said in response to a student’s question on the IDF’s “lenient” rules of engagement, quoting a traditional Jewish phrase.

Rabbis and right-wing lawmakers took Eisenkot to task on Thursday for his comments, with Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely accusing Eisenkot of damaging Israel’s image.

Safed Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu mocked the chief of staff’s comments, saying: “His statement could have sounded very touching, enlightened even, if he were successful at stopping this ongoing wave of terror attacks. To the regret of us all, Gadi Eisenkot failed in his foremost duty.”

Since October 1, some 30 Israelis have been killed by Palestinians in knife, gun and car-ramming attacks. At the same time, more than 160 Palestinians have been killed, some 115 of them while carrying out attacks, and others during clashes and demonstrations.

But Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon made clear Thursday that he firmly supports Eisenkot, telling students in the north that Israel could not compromise on its core values, even in the face of persistent Palestinian unrest.

“We must not allow our senses to be dulled and must not become trigger-happy simply because our blood is boiling,” the defense minister said. “We need to know how to win and still remain human.”

Marissa Newman and Agencies contributed to this report.