Ya’alon slams ‘gang leader’ Liberman for backing Hebron soldier

Former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon hit back Wednesday at criticism of his handling of an Israeli soldier on trial for killing an incapacitated Palestinian attacker, slamming his successor Avigdor Liberman for acting like a “gang leader” in his public support of Sgt. Elor Azaria.

Liberman said Monday that politicians should let the military court do its job and not “decide [Azaria’s] fate” on their own.

“The political echelon, and especially the defense minister, must not be allowed to decide the fate of the soldier, all the more so before the legal process has ended,” he said in an apparent reference to comments made by his predecessor, who, as defense minister at the time of the incident, indicated he believed Azaria to be guilty.

In a speech at Bar Ilan University, Ya’alon denied acting inappropriately, Haaretz reported. He said he had “not spoken with the Military Advocate General to this day on the matter because it could have been seen as intervention.”

Azaria was in military court this week over the March 24 incident, in which he was filmed shooting Abdel Fattah al-Sharif in the head, nearly 15 minutes after Sharif was shot and wounded by soldiers he had tried to stab.

Then-defense minister Ya’alon and a number of other military officials defended the army’s decision to prosecute Azaria, saying the killing was inconsistent with the army’s values.

Ya’alon said Wednesday that he only commented on the case after the completion of an internal IDF inquiry that determined Azaria to be in the wrong.

“I did not associate with the criminal proceedings in any way whatsoever. I did not make a pilgrimage to the court as a gang leader — forgive me for saying — in order to apply pressure,” he said, referring to a protest outside the court attended by Liberman — and other MKs from his Yisrael Beytenu party — before he was appointed minister.

IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday that the greatest threat to the army is meddling politicians who reduce the public’s faith in the integrity of the military. In a meeting closed, details of which were leaked to the media, Eisenkot warned lawmakers that political rhetoric on army matters damages the IDF.

MKs present at the meeting recalled that Eisenkot noted there have been several incidents of politicians speaking out inappropriately on internal army matters, and drew particular attention to the case of Azaria.

“A lot of things were said without knowledge of the facts, to promote agendas that have nothing to do with the IDF,” he said. “We want an IDF that operates according to orders, rules of engagement, the IDF spirit and IDF values. If someone wants gang ethos then he would say so.”

Ya’alon, who resigned from politics on May 20 after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave his ministerial position to Liberman in a maneuver aimed at bolstering his coalition, also used his Wednesday speech to criticize Israel’s political leadership for creating divisions in society rather than working towards unity.

“One time against Arabs, another time against settlers, this time against leftists, another against the ultra-Orthodox, again against the LGBT community, and now Ashkenazim and Mizrahim. Where have they gotten this from? To look for divisiveness all the time?” he said, according to Haaretz.