Eisenkot: Netanyahu’s national security decisions were never political

Following a changing-of-the-guard ceremony at IDF headquarters Tuesday, in which outgoing chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot handed over the reins to his successor, Aviv Kochavi, Eisenkot said that neither he nor Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ever made a national security decision for political reasons.

At a meeting of the General Staff of the army at the Kirya base in Tel Aviv, Eisenkot offered his parting thoughts to the army’s top brass.

Known as a man of few words, Eisenkot said, “My recommendations [to the government] were shaped by Israel’s security needs. There were never any political concerns behind my decisions; nor were there in the prime minister’s considerations” when it came to national security, he affirmed.

Netanyahu was accused last month by opposition figures of playing up an IDF operation to locate and destroy cross-border attack tunnels dug from Lebanon for political gain, with the announcement coming in the midst of a coalition crisis that threatened to topple his government.

The prime minister would go on to declare early elections just weeks later, despite the security situation seemingly staying unchanged.

In a series of interviews last week ahead of his retirement, Eisenkot said the tunnels were a central aspect of Hezbollah’s plans for a surprise attack and that their destruction represented a significant setback for the terror group, potentially putting off a confrontation with Israel by several years.

Echoing Eisenkot, Netanyahu said Tuesday that the security decisions he and the outgoing chief of staff made were motivated by defense concerns.

“We made pertinent decisions whose purpose was to safeguard the state’s existence,” he said during a toast at the ceremony.

Turning to Kochavi, Netanyahu said, “We trust you.”

Kochavi, until now the deputy chief of staff, takes over as Israel faces an array of challenges on its borders.

As expected, he hit the ground running, meeting his general staff on Tuesday afternoon, after which he was scheduled to issue a daily order sent out to all IDF commanders and soldiers.

The new IDF commander takes over at a time when Israel is openly engaged in military operations to prevent Iranian entrenchment in Syria, while also facing weekly violent confrontations in the south on the border with the Gaza Strip and the constant threat of tensions with Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group.

Internally, Israel is in the midst of an election season, with security matters always high on the agenda, and the army has been subjected to criticism from lawmakers and an outside ombudsman that it may not be prepared for war.