Defense minister denounces adviser who called Medal of Courage winner a ‘coward’
Ya’alon calls Moshe Ben-Zaken’s Facebook post about Maj. Roi Klein ‘hurtful and unnecessary,’ orders him to remove it
Judah Ari Gross is The Times of Israel's religions and Diaspora affairs correspondent.
An adviser to the defense minister found himself in hot water Sunday after he published a Facebook post criticizing an officer who died throwing himself on a grenade during the 2006 Second Lebanon War to shield his soldiers.
Moshe Ben-Zaken, a Likud member and the newly appointed political adviser to the defense minister, accused Maj. Roi Klein of sacrificing himself in order to “cover up the mistake” of leading his men into what Zaken described as an unnecessary battle.
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon came out strongly against his political adviser, who entered the position in late March, calling the post “personal, hurtful and unnecessary.”
Ben-Zaken’s post, entitled “Turning cowards into heroes,” charged that Klein had employed “incorrect judgment” when he instructed his soldiers to change their position in the “light of day” and “break into a booby-trapped door” during a battle in the town of Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon.
The Facebook post, which was published Sunday morning, was addressed to a friend of the defense minister’s adviser who died in the same battle. The friend, Shimon Dahan, had “warned [Klein] and asked him not to break in, but rather to take cover and protect his friends until the evening when there was less light,” Ben-Zaken wrote.
“You were answered in the negative, and you all came under fire immediately upon breaking in. Roi, who led you in to the fire trap, jumped on the grenade in order to cover up the mistake. And you, in your innocence, stood up to dozens of bloodthirsty, evil terrorists, filled with hate. You brought down a few, but didn’t succeed in not getting hit,” Ben-Zaken said.
This account sharply breaks with the generally accepted narrative about the Battle of Bint Jbeil, which views Klein as a war hero for his courage in protecting his troops.
For his actions, Klein, then deputy commander of the Golani Brigade’s 51st Battalion, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Courage, Israel’s second-highest military honor. For a 2002 action, Klein had previously earned a Chief of Staff Citation, known in Hebrew as a tziyun lashevah, or in acronym form, tzalash.
Ben-Zaken’s Facebook post drew quick criticism from his boss, the defense minister, and he later deleted the remark due to pressure from Ya’alon’s office.
In response to Ben-Zaken’s post, Ya’alon wrote his own statement on social media, saying he’d spoken with Klein’s widow Sarah and father Aharon.
“During our conversation, I clarified that I apologized for the post and completely renounce the things [said in it], that they were not my opinion and did not represent the position of the defense establishment and the IDF,” Ya’alon said.
“I told this to my aide, who deleted the post on that same evening,” the defense minister said.
