Bennett: Religious officers prevented from reaching top IDF posts

Education Minister Naftali Bennett of the New Right party has claimed in closed conversations that religious officers are being prevented from reaching top positions in the military.

A recording of Bennett speaking at a meeting with activists was aired by Channel 12 news Saturday. In it, the minister is heard saying: “Have you asked yourselves: ‘How is it that there are no religious major generals?'”

“How is it possible that half of [the IDF’s officers’ school] are kippah-wearers, tons of battalion and brigade commanders are religious, and somewhere on the way to the general staff they disappear? There’s a problem here and it needs to be dealt with,” he said.

“If you want to advance as a religious person you need to toe the line with the liberal agenda of humanism, human rights, seminars and ‘processes that are reminiscent of the 1930s,'” he said, referencing a former IDF general who compared some trends in Israeli society to those of pre-World War II Germany.

It wasn’t immediately clear where Bennett’s comments were aimed. Bennett, who in the past has demanded he be made defense minister, recently founded the New Right party after reportedly bristling at the exclusively religious character of the Jewish Home party he formerly headed.

A number of senior officers in the IDF have come from religious backgrounds, including former deputy chief of staff Yair Naveh, MK Elazar Stern, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, and Yishai Beer, all of whom were major generals.

Both Avi Blot and Eliezer Toledano, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s current and former military secretaries, also came from religious backgrounds.

However, some high-ranking officers who are religious have had their careers curtailed in recent years because of scandals. Ofek Buchris, formerly a brigadier general who headed the Golani brigade, had his rank lowered to colonel as part of a plea bargain after being accused of sexual assault.

Brig. Gen. Ofer Winter, who headed the Givati brigade, came under criticism in the 2014 Gaza war for comments he made at the time that framed the operation as a religious fight, for allegedly passing information about the war to Bennett without proper approval, and for his actions during that conflict’s controversial “Black Friday” battle in Rafah.

He was later named as military secretary to then-defense minister Avigdor Liberman after complaining of being passed over for promotions.

Erez Weiner, another high-ranking officer who is religious and was forced out of the army by an unrelated scandal, was also accused of passing information about the war to Bennett, along with a former IDF chief rabbi.