IDF rebuffs Gantz's claim Baumel operation announcement was timed to serve PM

Army ‘rejects outright’ suggestion that years-long mission was used for Netanyahu’s political gain, ahead of next week’s election

The Israel Defense Forces on Thursday rejected a claim that the publication of an operation that saw a soldier’s remains returned to Israel after a nearly four-decade search was designed to bolster Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political prospects, ahead of next week’s election.

The army was responding to allegations by prime ministerial candidate Benny Gantz, who earlier in the day accused Netanyahu of timing the dramatic announcement on Wednesday about IDF soldier Sgt. First Class Zachary Baumel to serve his political needs.

After a complex and secret operation, Baumel’s remains were returned to Israel on an El Al plane via Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said his country’s military, with Syrian assistance, retrieved the remains of the Israeli tank commander.

The IDF “rejects outright the claims about timing: This is a find after a two-year operation,” said IDF spokesman Ronen Manelis, without naming Gantz. “There was cooperation here that defies all imagination and the decision was substantive. Any other claim is baseless.”

Baumel is believed to have been killed in the First Lebanon War’s battle of Sultan Yacoub in 1982 at the age of 21. He is to be buried at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem on Thursday evening, according to the IDF.

Gantz hailed the operation in an interview with Army Radio on Thursday, saying he had dealt with the issue during his time as IDF chief of staff.

Left to right: Oron Shaul, Hadar Goldin and Avera Mengistu. (Flash90/The Times of Israel)

“I support everyone dealing with it — it is an important national and moral duty — and would like to mention Avera Mengistu, who is in Gaza, and Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul, whom we need to invest efforts to bring home. I am happy that one story at least has come to a close,” the Blue and White party chief said, referring to a civilian and the bodies of two IDF soldiers believed to be held by the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip.

But he also accused the prime minister of using the issue for political gain.

“I am happy that he is capitalizing politically [out of it], but I’m happier that Zachary Baumel has returned to a Jewish grave and to his family,” he said.

“Are you saying there was a political consideration in the timing of the publication?” the interviewer asked.

“You said it better than me,” Gantz responded.

Benny Gantz speaks at a news conference in Tel Aviv on March 27, 2019. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

Netanyahu vehemently denied the allegation, which had also been voiced by some pundits, in an interview with Israel Radio earlier Thursday morning.

“This is a utter nonsense — the date was determined due to operational considerations that occurred during the last 48 hours, when the various checks were completed,” he said.

In Gantz’s interview, he denounced the premier over his conduct, his various corruption cases, and what he described as failures in security, transportation and other fields. Gantz also defended calling Netanyahu a “tyrant in the making,” in an interview with Channel 12 Wednesday.

“This isn’t the Netanyahu I knew, this isn’t the Netanyahu under whom I served,” he said. “Netanyahu no longer has the legitimacy to be the prime minister of Israel.”

Zachary Baumel. (JTA/Courtesy Miriam Baumel)

The announcement of the return of Baumel’s remains brought to a close a decades-long mission by Baumel’s Jerusalem-based, American-born parents to find their son, which included international pressure campaigns and faint hopes that he may have been captured alive during the brutal Sultan Yacoub tank battle.