IDF chief said to ask defense minister to close or jettison Army Radio

IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi has asked Defense Minister Benny Gantz to close down the decades-old Army Radio station, or at the very least remove it from the military’s purview, Channel 12 reported Monday.

Army Radio has long dominated media culture in Israel, with new recruits receiving senior positions in one of the most listened-to news channels in the country — oftentimes at just 18 years old. When they finish their service, many are hired for positions at other prominent networks across the country.

The station’s news department is also staffed by seasoned journalists who do not view themselves as being at all obligated to toe the military line.

The station’s position as a media outlet has thus always been an uneasy one, functioning simultaneously, and sometimes discordantly, as an independent news organization that seeks to critique the government and as an arm of the Israeli military dedicated to covering the troops and furthering the narrative of the army as an area of national consensus.

In recent years, Army Radio has been embroiled in various scandals tied to the statements of civilian journalists that have been criticized by right-wing elements as being too controversial or insufficiently patriotic for a station supposedly representing the Israel Defense Forces.

And there has for years been talk of potentially closing it, or moving it outside the responsibility of the army, to resolve its crisis of character. The previous IDF chief, Gadi Eisenkot, also at one point called for moving the station outside the army.

According to Channel 12, Kohavi has told various officials that he is frustrated by having to handle media relations for the station and comments on the controversies its reporters often cause.

Gantz was said to be considering his position on the matter.

A spokesperson for the IDF told the network he would “not comment on things said in closed conversations.”